The Multiple Roles of Social-Emotional Skills in Student Educational, Psychological, and Social Outcomes: An Empirical Study from China

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to investigate the multiple roles of social-emotional skills in the educational, psychological, and social outcomes of Chinese primary and secondary students, using an ordinary least squares (OLS) regression method based on the 2019 Survey on Social and Emotional Skills (SSES) data. A two-stage stratified probability sampling design (sampling schools at the first stage and students at the second stage) was administered to gain a representative sample, and the final sample contained 7,141 participants across both 10-year-old and 15-year-old cohorts. The results indicated that task performance, collaboration, and engaging with others are stronger contributors to student educational outcomes than emotional regulation and open-mindedness; that emotional regulation and collaboration are stronger contributors to student psychological outcomes than task performance, open-mindedness, and engaging with others; and that emotional regulation, collaboration, and engaging with others are stronger contributors to student social outcomes than task performance and open-mindedness. Generally, open-mindedness embodied a relatively weaker effect on student educational, psychological, and social outcomes. The findings suggest that social-emotional skills function differently across student educational, psychological, and social outcomes, which may provide some effective guidance to proceed with social-emotional education in Chinese primary and secondary schools.