An integrative framework for conceptualizing and assessing social, emotional, and behavioral skills: The BESSI.

Abstract

People differ in their social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) skills: their capacities to maintain social relationships, regulate emotions, and manage goal-and learning-directed behaviors. In five studies using data from seven independent samples (N = 6,309), we address three key questions about the nature, structure, assessment, and outcomes of SEB skills. First, how can SEB skills be defined and distinguished from other kinds of psychological constructs, such as personality traits? We propose that SEB skills represent how someone is capable of thinking, feeling, and behaving when the situation calls for it, whereas traits represent how someone tends to think, feel, and behave averaged across situations. Second, how can specific SEB skills be organized within broader domains? We find that many skill facets can be organized within five major domains representing Social Engagement, Cooperation, Self-Management, Emotional Resilience, and Innovation Skills. Third, how should SEB skills be measured? We develop and validate the Behavioral, Emotional, and Social Skills Inventory (BESSI) to measure individuals' capacity to enact specific behaviors representing 32 skill facets. We then use the BESSI to investigate the nomological network of SEB skills. We show that both skill domains and facets converge in conceptually meaningful ways with socioemotional competencies, character and developmental strengths, and personality traits, and predict consequential outcomes including academic achievement and engagement, occupational interests, social relationships, and well-being. We believe that this work provides the most comprehensive model currently available for conceptualizing SEB skills, as well as the most psychometrically robust tool available for assessing them.

The roles of social–emotional skills in students’ academic and life success: A multi-informant and multicohort perspective.

“…In addition to optimism, energy and trust were the other two important skills for psychological health outcomes. Energy, the capacity to be active and enthusiastic in daily pursuits, is closely associated with high levels of physical activities (Soto et al, 2022), thus leading to better subjective well-being (Bell et al, 2019; Hyde et al, 2013). People with high levels of trust skills tend to have higher subjective well-being and life satisfaction by possessing positive social relationships and high social capital (Helliwell et al, 2016).…”

“…This also exists in many other social–emotional skill and personality measures (see Abrahams et al, 2019 for more discussion). Recently, Soto et al (2022) developed a social–emotional skill measurement in which skills were identified and measured as functional capacities: How someone is capable of thinking, feeling, or behaving when the situation calls for it (e.g., how well you can do a specific thing ), which is distinctive from personality traits referring to how someone tends to think, feel, and behave when averaged across situations. They showed that the proposed skills are empirically distinguishable from personality traits.…”

“…Success in school is influenced by more than merely cognitive abilities and opportunities (Demange et al, 2021; Kautz et al, 2014; Lavrijsen et al, 2022; Soto et al, 2022). It is also influenced by students’ capacities to manage goal- and task-directed behaviors, maintain social relationships, and regulate emotions (Demange et al, 2021; Durlak et al, 2015; Soto et al, 2022). We collectively refer to these capacities as social–emotional skills (Abrahams et al, 2019; Collie, 2020; Kankaraš & Suarez-Alvarez, 2019; Schoon, 2021).…”

“…Stress resistance, the capacity to modulate anxiety and calmly solve problems, is assumed to be most beneficial for eliminating stress and preventing sleep problems (Lund et al, 2010; Stephan et al, 2018; Sutin et al, 2020), whereas self-control is assumed to be most helpful for developing a healthy eating habit given its decisive role in regulating behaviors (Murray & Booth, 2015; Strickhouser et al, 2017). Since energy is the manifestation of energetic and vigorous behavior, it is assumed to be the most powerful predictor of physical activity (Rhodes & Smith, 2006; Soto et al, 2022). For general health condition, optimism, the ability to maintain positive and optimistic expectations for self and life in general, has been found to have the strongest relation with an individual’s health (Carver et al, 2010; Strickhouser et al, 2017).…”

Predicting Actual Social Skill Expression from Personality and Skill Self-Concepts

“…That is, some individuals are more successful at persuading, showing compassion, or calmly dealing with criticism than others. Differences in such social skills have frequently been discussed as key person variables related to pivotal outcomes, such as academic success and job performance ( Arthur et al 2003 ; Ferris et al 2001 ; Lievens and Sackett 2012 ; Soto et al 2022 ).…”