Cultural or economic factors? Which matters more for collaborative problem-solving skills: Evidence from 31 countries

Abstract

Much of today's complex work is performed by teams of people with various backgrounds and expertise. Collaborative problem-solving (CPS) skills are being increasingly emphasized in the workplace, government, and academia. In the present study, we examined whether socioenvironmental factors could predict adolescents' CPS skills and whether such an effect was unique to CPS skills compared with mathematics, reading, and science for the first time by using data from approximately 209,088 high school students from 31 countries. We found that both cultural factors (i.e., individualism versus collectivism) and economic factors (i.e., economic inequality) could explain how students performed in CPS tasks but that economic inequality was more powerful in explaining CPS skills. Gender differences were reflected only in the influence of economic factors on CPS skills. Additionally, there were similarities and differences between the effects of socioenvironmental factors on CPS skills and the other three core subjects (i.e., mathematics, science, and reading). Our results suggest that to enhance students' CPS skills, researchers and educators should pay more attention to the impact of wealth distribution inequality on CPS skills.