Importance of Socio-emotional Skills in Education: A Documentary Review

Abstract

Socio-emotional skills (SES) enable the comprehensive development of individuals. This article summarizes a review of publications collected in different academic databases and search engines related to SES and their relationship with education. The qualitative methodology of this study allowed selecting 104 publications, which revealed a growing research interest in SES since 2013, mainly in Europe and South America. 68% of the publications are from the educational field and 18% suggest that SES-aligned curricula improve students’ emotional well-being and academic performance. Although the definition of SES found in the publications analyzed is polysemic, they share certain common elements can be related. For this reason, we proposed grouping them into three approaches, described in the final section. The results of the review highlight the versatility and importance of SES in educational environments and validates the premise that they are essential elements. The article concludes that it is necessary to promote research on SES in the educational sector, given its comprehensive nature within school learning. It also proposes strategies for its correct measurement in accordance with the context and following a multidisciplinary approach, that is, one that encompasses not only pedagogy, but also psychology, sociology, communication, among other disciplines.

Keywords

• socio-emotional skills
• education
• well-being
• academic research
• cognitive skills