An investigation examining the role of social-emotional experiences in relation to academic engagement has revealed students with higher self-perception of social-emotional confidence tend to be more engaged in their academic learning.
The University of New South Wales Sydney study, conducted through online surveys with students and their parents, demonstrated that secondary school-aged children who perceived themselves as being more confident in their social-emotional skills were more likely to display signs of positive behaviour. They were also more open to completing learning tasks, such as homework.
Associate Professor Rebecca Collie of UNSW Sydney led the Social-emotional need satisfaction and students’ academic engagement and social-emotional skills study surveyed students and their parents across Australia on questions relating to their own self-perceptions and experiences in their learning.
Collie says the study sought to understand the role of social-emotional confidence by identifying specific factors relevant to student-reported behavioural disengagement and parent reports of students’ homework practices.
“Academic confidence is well recognised as being a driver of positive academic outcomes among students, such as academic engagement and achievement,” Collie says
“Research also shows that social-emotional confidence is linked with positive social-emotional outcomes like well-being and prosocial behaviour.”
What role does social-emotional confidence play?
She says one important question that remains largely unexamined, however, is the role that social-emotional confidence plays in relation to academic outcomes.
“Is there crossover between these domains? This is important to examine because learning is both a cognitive and social-emotional act,” says Collie.
“Understanding how social-emotional confidence is linked with academic engagement is critical for ensuring we best support students to succeed at school.”
After analysing the participants’ responses, Collie found two significant findings related to how greater social-emotional confidence is associated with acts of learning.
“The first finding showed that social-emotional confidence was linked with greater homework application,” she says.
“This means that students who feel confident in their social-emotional interactions are reported by their parents as putting more effort into doing their homework to the degree expected by their teachers.
“The second finding was that social-emotional confidence was associated with lower behavioural disengagement. Students who feel confident in their social-emotional interactions are less likely to be distracted or disinterested in the classroom.
“The study suggests that efforts to support students’ social-emotional confidence are important for engagement-centric academic outcomes.”
Fostering happier, healthier students
Collie told EducationDaily the study was prompted by the reality that there is “more and more awareness of the importance of students’ social and emotional development, including the role this plays in fostering happy and healthy individuals”.
“Research also highlights that social-emotional factors have an important role to play in academic success, but we know less about this. This study was prompted by the desire to learn more about the role of social-emotional confidence in relation to outcomes like academic engagement, which decades of research tells us is linked with academic success.”
She says the findings reiterate the important link between academic and social-emotional experiences in school, and how both are important.
“Schools can be confident knowing that the efforts they embed to support positive social-emotional experiences among their students are also relevant for students’ academic outcome,” Collie told EducationDaily.
“Social-emotional confidence is important because it dictates how students view the world and the actions they undertake,” she says.
“Being confident in this area means students are more likely to experience a wide range of adaptive outcomes, including greater academic and wellbeing experiences, because it encourages them to get involved, build positive interpersonal relationships, and seek out help when needed.”
