The role of social and emotional skills on adolescents’ life satisfaction and academic performance

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The COVID-19 pandemic, which emerged in 2019, has had a significant impact on the mental health of adolescents, leading to symptoms such as anxiety and depression, and a decrease in their overall life satisfaction. In the educational context, social and emotional competencies have gained increasing importance due to their potential to enhance various aspects of academic, personal, and professional life. This study aimed to assess the socioemotional competencies of 1,270 secondary school students and explore their connection with life satisfaction and academic achievement. For this purpose, the Social and Emotional Learning Scale, the Spanish adaptation of the Life Satisfaction Scale, and an ad-hoc questionnaire that collected the sociodemographic variables of gender, age, and academic performance, were administered. The Mann-Whitney U test for two independent samples, the Kruskal-Wallis H test for independent samples, and the Spearman’s correlation analysis were conducted to examine the relationships between the variables. In summary, the study revealed statistically significant differences social and emotional competencies based on gender, but there were no discernible differences based on age. Furthermore, the results indicated a positive relationship between life satisfaction, social and emotional competencies, and academic performance. The findings of this study hold significant importance as they contribute to our understanding of the factors impacting the well-being of adolescents. Hence, in the current post-pandemic era, there is an even greater urgency to design and implement high-quality interventions centered around social and emotional learning in education, particularly from an early age.