Socio-emotional well-being and academic achievement: evidence from a multilevel approach

Abstract

Even though social and emotional well-being has been proposed as a main goal of education, its association with academic achievement is usually overlooked, particularly considering that educational institutions are requested to show academic outcomes, and thus their focus is on cognitive development and academic training. This study adopts a multilevel perspective to test this association among Chilean elementary students, considering features at individual (socio-emotional well-being, self esteem, and social integration) and social levels (classroom social climate and social network characteristics). Results show that socio-emotional variables, and particularly teachers' ratings of their students' self esteem, are associated with academic achievement. Interaction effects of individual and contextual variables are presented, and implications for research and interventions are discussed. Keywords: Socio-emotional wellbeing; Academic achievement; Multilevel. ResumoApesar de que o bem-estar social e emocional tem sido proposto como uma meta principal da educação, sua associação com o desempenho acadêmico geralmente é negligenciado, especialmente considerando que as instituições educacionais são convidados a mostrar os resultados acadêmicos, e, portanto, o foco é no desenvolvimento cognitivo e da formação acadêmica. Este estudo adota uma perspectiva multinível para testar essa associação entre alunos chilenos do ensino fundamental, incluindo características individuais (bem-estar sócio-emocional, auto-estima e integração social) e sociais (clima social da aula e as características de rede social). Os resultados mostram que as variáveis sócio-emocionais, e em especial a percepção de professores da auto-estima de seus alunos, estão associados com desempenho acadêmico. Além disso, efeitos de interação das variáveis individuais e contextuais são apresentados. Implicações para a pesquisa e as intervenções são discutidos. Palavras-chave: Bem-estar sócio-emocional; Desempenho acadêmico; Multinivel.

Wellbeing, academic buoyancy and educational achievement in primary school students

“…However, research in the last decade has reported inconsistent relationships between various aspects of wellbeing and academic achievement (e.g. Heckman, Stixrud & Urzua, 2006;Berger, Alcalay, Torretti & Milicic, 2011;Suldo & Shaffer, 2008;Saab & Klinger, 2010;Nicholson, Lucas, Berthelsen & Wake, 2012). Heckman et al (2006), for example, used data from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (participants aged 14 to 22 years-old) to demonstrate that non-cognitive traits, in this case self esteem (Rosenberg, 1965) and locus of control (Rotter, 1966), can be a more powerful predictor of school and life success than cognitive traits such as IQ.…”

“…Similarly, a cross-sectional survey of 674 Chilean students aged nine to 11 years-old found that self esteem predicted academic achievement (grade average). It was also reported that wellbeing measured by a 52 item Chilean wellbeing scale (Arab, 2009), social integration, classroom social climate and peer social networks were not predictors of academic achievement (Berger, et al, 2011). In a sample of 349 ten to 16 year olds Suldo and Shaffer (2008) measured wellbeing using the Students' Life Satisfaction Scale (Huebner, 1991) and the Positive and Negative Affect Scale for Children (Laurent et al, 1999).…”

“…Other studies (e.g. Berger et al, 2011;Saab & Klinger, 2010;Gutman & Feinstein, 2008) More specifically it is thought that socio-emotional learning (Lopes & Salovey, 2004) might improve academic achievement by improving emotional regulation skills such as the ability to attend, concentrate and engage with work and ability to moderate and self-regulate impulses and behaviours in social contexts. It follows that this would enable the student to 'sit still' through class during teaching and better concentrate and attend to their work.…”

The Relationship between Videogame Use, Deviant Behavior, and Academic Achievement among a Nationally Representative Sample of High School Seniors in the United States

“…Videogames that transmit positive content such as "Mario," may be associated with higher achievement [67] because they could improve a person's sense of well-being [65,66], which has been shown to increase achievement [75]. Seligman [66] believes that gaming can promote people's emotions and quality of relationships in a positive direction.…”

“…After examining the correlations between key study variables and testing the assumptions of the analysis, I tested my hypotheses using a three-step hierarchical linear regression [75]. In the first step, I tested to see whether videogame use predicted academic achievement.…”