What Matters for Students’ Learning? The Roles of Social and Emotional Skills and the Factors Affecting These Skills

Purpose: This study employs a multi-cohort and multi-informant design to assess how the social and emotional skills of Chinese youth vary according to age and gender, as well as the home, school, and community environment factors that promote or hinder the development of such skills. This study also investigates the relevance of these skills for students’ educational, social, and psychological outcomes. Design/Approach/Methods: The survey sample consisted of two cohorts comprising a total of 7,268 students. In terms of age, 3,647 respondents (50.2%) were 10-year-olds, while 3,621 (49.8%) were 15-year-olds. In terms of gender, 3,824 (52.8%) respondents were male, 3,417 (47%) were female, and 13 (0.2%) respondents did not identify their gender. Multiple group confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to test for measurement invariance across age and gender. Moreover, correlation and relative weight analyses were conducted to examine the degree and relative contributions of self-, parent-, and teacher-rated social and emotional skills in predicting various important life outcomes. Findings: The results revealed that the 10-year-old respondents scored higher in all 15 social and emotional skills than the 15-year-old respondents. Among the younger cohort, girls score higher in cooperation, empathy, sociability, persistence, and tolerance. In general, a sense of school belonging was related to engaging with others (sociability), collaboration (cooperation and trust), and emotion regulation (optimism and stress resistance). The School Bullying Index was closely related to stress resistance, trust, and cooperation. Optimism was the strongest factor related to life satisfaction and psychological well-being, followed by energy and trust. Stress resistance and optimism were closely related to test anxiety. Originality/Value: This study makes a significant contribution to the literature because it is the first large-scale assessment of adolescents’ social and emotional skills worldwide and in China. This original study explores the importance of social and emotional skills in predicting educational, social, and psychological outcomes and identifies potential factors that drive the development of such skills.