Social and emotional competency development from fourth to 12th grade

Relations to parental education and gender

Bibliographic Data

ID8718809
AuthorsSara E Rimm‐kaufman (0000-0002-1354-8249, corresponding author), James Soland (0000-0001-8895-2871), Megan Kuhfeld (0000-0002-2231-5228)
Year2024
Volume80
Issue3
Pages359-374
Publication date2024-05-23
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Psychologist (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-066X • E-ISSN: 1935-990X
PublisherAmerican Psychological Association (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1037/amp0001357
PMID38780577
OpenAlexW4398236859
LanguageEN
Citations received5

Educators have become increasingly committed to social and emotional learning in schools. However, we know too little about the typical growth trajectories of the competencies that schools are striving to improve. We leverage data from the California Office to Reform Education, a consortium of districts in California serving over 1.5 million students, that administers annual surveys to students to measure social and emotional competencies (SECs). This article uses data from six cohorts of approximately 16,000 students each (51% male, 73% Latinx, 11% White, 10% Black, 24% with parents who did not complete high school) in Grades 4-12. Two questions are addressed. First, how much growth occurs in growth mindset, self-efficacy, self-management, and social awareness from Grades 4 to 12? Second, do initial status and growth look different by parental educational attainment and gender? Using accelerated longitudinal design growth models, findings show distinct growth trends among the four SECs with growth mindset increasing, self-management mostly decreasing, and self-efficacy and social awareness decreasing and then increasing. The subgroup analyses show gaps between groups but patterns of growth that are more similar than different. Further, subgroup membership accounts for very little variation in growth or declines. Instead, initial levels of competencies predict growth. Also, variation within groups is greater than variation between groups. The findings have practical implications for educators and psychologists striving to improve SECs. If schools use student-report approaches, predicting steady and consistent positive growth in SECs is unrealistic. Instead, U-shaped patterns for some SECs appear to be normative with notable declines in the sixth grade, requiring new supports. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)

Developmental psychology · Emotional development · Political science · Social change · Social emotional learning · Early Childhood Education and Development · Parental Involvement in Education · Psychology · Social Psychology