SSES 2023: Social and Emotional Skills in Spain

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What is SSES?

The Survey on Social and Emotional Skills (SSES), promoted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), addresses the growing need to evaluate and foster fundamental skills—not only for academic success but also for the holistic development of students. The evaluation seeks to understand how these skills vary across students with different sociodemographic characteristics, how they influence life outcomes, and the extent to which school and family environments shape their development.

SSES 2023 marks the second cycle of this international assessment, following SSES 2019. In this edition, students from six countries and ten cities or regions participated. Spain joined the study for the first time, evaluating 15-year-old students with a sample including approximately 80 schools and over 3,300 students. The study explored how various factors—ranging from family environment to educational context—affect the development of key competencies.

Study Objectives and Methodology

SSES aims to provide reliable data on young people’s social and emotional skills and their relationship with their environments. The assessment is grounded in the well-known Big Five model, which categorizes skills into five broad domains, further subdivided into secondary competencies:

  • Task performance: self-control, responsibility, and persistence.
  • Emotional balance: stress resistance, optimism, and emotional control.
  • Collaboration: empathy, trust, and cooperation.
  • Open-mindedness: tolerance, curiosity, and creativity.
  • Engagement with others: sociability, assertiveness, and energy.

Additionally, the study evaluates indices like achievement motivation and self-efficacy, offering educators and policymakers insights into fostering these essential skills. Alongside assessing social and emotional skills, the study gathers contextual data through:

  • Self-assessment tools for students.
  • Contextual questionnaires for students, families, teachers, and school leaders.

The question arises: Could artificial intelligence facilitate a reliable, objective, and efficient evaluation of these competencies through personalized reports?

Key Findings in Spain

The SSES was implemented nationwide, with a representative sample of students from various socioeconomic backgrounds and regions. Spain’s contribution included 79 schools, 3,303 students, 695 teachers, and 74 school leaders. Ensuring uniform application of assessments and consistent interpretation of data across regions posed a significant challenge.

The SSES results show significant variability in socio-emotional competencies across different socio-demographic groups. For example, gender differences in competencies such as assertiveness and achievement motivation are more pronounced in Spain compared to the international average. Furthermore, disadvantaged students tend to report lower levels in all competencies assessed. Thus, the most significant findings and results of the SSES 2023 in Spain are:

Highlights of SSES 2023 in Spain:

1. Gender Differences in Socioemotional Skills

  • Girls demonstrated significantly lower levels in 8 of the 15 evaluated competencies compared to boys, particularly in:
    • Emotional balance: stress resistance, optimism, and emotional control.
    • Engagement with others: energy, sociability, confidence, and assertiveness.
    • Open-mindedness: creativity.
  • Boys scored lower in:
    • Task performance: achievement motivation, responsibility, and persistence.
    • Collaboration: empathy.
    • Open-mindedness: tolerance.

2. Socioeconomic Disparities in Socioemotional Skills

  • Students from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds scored lower in all competencies compared to their advantaged peers, with the largest gaps observed in:
    • Task performance: achievement motivation, persistence, responsibility, and self-control.
    • Engagement with others: energy, assertiveness, and sociability.
    • Emotional balance: emotional control, confidence, and optimism.

3. Impact on Educational and Professional Outcomes

  • Skills under task performance—such as motivation, persistence, responsibility, and self-control—strongly correlated with higher academic performance.
  • Surprisingly, highly sociable students tended to perform worse academically, as sociability had a negative impact on grades and attendance.
  • Spanish students exhibited ambitious career plans: 81% aimed to complete tertiary education, with higher expectations among girls, socioeconomically advantaged students, and native-born individuals.
  • 40% of Spanish students expressed intentions of entrepreneurship, aspiring to start their own businesses. Competencies like assertiveness, energy, creativity, sociability, and optimism were strongly linked to entrepreneurial ambition, especially among immigrant students.

4. Relationship with Well-being and Health

  • Competencies related to emotional balance—such as optimism and emotional control—were positively associated with better psychological well-being, life satisfaction, and healthy habits.
  • Students with higher levels of engagement with others and emotional balance reported lower levels of exam and classroom anxiety.
  • Gender disparities in health and well-being were notably wider in Spain compared to the international average. Girls reported worse outcomes across all six health and well-being measures—except relationship satisfaction—than boys.

Conclusions

The findings underscore the importance of targeted interventions to strengthen specific competencies that influence academic performance, social interactions, emotional management, and overall well-being. Key takeaways include:

  • Addressing disparities: Educational policies must focus on bridging gender and socioeconomic gaps in essential skills development.
  • Program development: Initiatives to enhance empathy, cooperation, and socioemotional education should be more effectively integrated into the national curriculum.
  • International benchmarking: The study provides valuable comparisons, highlighting Spain’s strengths and areas for improvement.

In the long term, SSES is expected to yield more data to shape educational policies and teaching practices. This study reflects Spain’s commitment to holistic education, recognizing the role of socioemotional skills in shaping resilient, empathetic, and capable citizens.

For more information, visit the websites of Spain’s National Institute of Educational Evaluation and the OECD’s SSES study.