How kids' emotional understanding affects school success
While emotional understanding does not directly improve children's school grades, it helps them build better social skills, which directly lead to higher academic success.
Source
Emotion Understanding, Social Competence and School Achievement in Children from Primary School in Portugal
Study at a glance
- Design
- Cross-sectional — SEM of emotion understanding, social competence, and grades in Madeira primary schools
- N
- N=406 · Teacher ratings for 108 and parent ratings for 86 of the 406 students
- Population
- Primary-school students aged 6–11 in Madeira, Portugal
- Outcome
- School achievement mediated by social competence from emotion understanding
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How kids' emotional understanding affects school success
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406 students in the sample
Data collection was carried out in four primary schools of the Autonomous Region of Madeira, which resulted in a sample of 406 students, 196 female and 210 male, aged between 6 and 11 ( M = 7.93, SD = l. 43) from grades 1st to 4th.
Teachers evaluated 108 students
Teachers assessed the social behavior of 108 students (26.61% of the sample), ages ranged between 6 and 11 ( M = 7.63, SD = 1.12).
What they did
The researchers measured fluid intelligence, emotion understanding, and social competence in 406 primary school students aged 6 to 11 in Madeira, Portugal. They gathered social skill ratings from a subset of 108 teachers and 86 parents, and tracked children's final school grades in Portuguese and Mathematics. Using structural equation modeling, the authors analyzed whether social competence mediated the link between emotional understanding and school grades.
What they found
The final statistical model successfully explained 52.6% of the variance in children's school grades. Emotional understanding had no direct impact on grades; instead, its influence was fully mediated by social competence, meaning emotional skills improved social behaviors, which then boosted grades. Social competence was the strongest overall predictor of grades, followed by fluid intelligence and the mother's educational level, with no differences observed between boys and girls.
The limits
What it doesn't show
Because the study design is cross-sectional and correlational, it cannot prove that emotional or social competence directly cause better grades, only that they are associated. Additionally, academic achievement was measured solely through teacher-assigned grades, which can be subjective and vary across classrooms. Finally, the study did not measure or control for other potentially important variables, such as children's personality traits or the quality of their relationships with their teachers.
Key terms
- Emotion understanding
- The ability to identify, predict, and explain emotional reactions in oneself and others.
- Social competence
- The collection of social, emotional, and cognitive skills required to successfully interact with others and maintain positive relationships.
- Fluid intelligence
- The capacity to think logically and solve novel problems independent of acquired educational knowledge.
- Mediation
- A statistical process where the relationship between an independent variable and a dependent variable is explained by an intervening third variable.
- Structural Equation Modeling
- A multivariate statistical technique used to evaluate complex relationships between multiple observed and latent variables simultaneously.
- Invariance
- A statistical property demonstrating that a measurement tool or structural model operates consistently across different subgroups, such as genders.
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Quiz yourself
According to the developmental phases of emotion understanding in childhood, which three distinct phases occur chronologically between ages 3 and 12?
Common questions
Does teaching children about emotions directly boost their school grades?
No. The study showed that emotional understanding has no direct effect on grades; rather, it helps children develop stronger social skills, which in turn leads to better academic achievement.
Were there differences in how emotional skills and grades linked together for boys versus girls?
No. The researchers tested for gender differences and found that the relationship pathways in the model were invariant, meaning they worked exactly the same way for both boys and girls.
How did the researchers measure children's social competence?
They used a multi-rater approach, collecting self-reports from the children, rating scales from teachers and parents, and conducting a cognitive test where children solved hypothetical social problems.
Why was 'fluid intelligence' included in this emotional development study?
Fluid intelligence is a strong, known predictor of grades. By controlling for it, the researchers proved that emotional understanding and social skills still explain additional, unique differences in school success.
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