01 Nov Emotional Competence in Kids: How it Can Improve Their Academic Performance
First of all, we should define emotional competence. This is considered to be the ability to regulate one’s emotions and behaviors, solve problems, interact appropriately with others and to effectively communicate with those in our social circles. Children who are emotionally competent will generally be able to exhibit the following qualities:
*sovial skills
*morality
*strong self-esteem
*good self confidence
*patience
*persistence
*effective communication skills
*strong conflict resolution skills
*empathy
*self-control
It’s no exaggeration to say that social and emotional competence can open the gateway to deeper learning. Acquiring emotional competence during childhood can be powerfully formative for a young person and it can literally serve as the foundation for all future learning.
Children who are emotionally competent are more likely to be succesful in the classroom and in their lives in general. A huge body of research evidence points to the fact that emotionally competent children develop strong physical, cognitive and communicative skills in life.
Improving Academic Performance:
According to the American Psychological Association, students who have a higher degree of emotional competence will generally do better at school than their less skilled counterparts, as measured by standardized test scores and school grades. It is known that being conscientious and having high intelligence are the most important attributes for academic success, but the emotional competence factor is a third aspect which can contribute strongly toward academic success.
More people are beginning to understand that it’s just not enough to be intelligent and hard-working in school but that students must also be able to understand and manage their emotions in order to acheive academic success. In a landmark study conducted between 1998 and 2019, data from more than 160 separate studies was analyzed and this data represented 27 different counties and more than 42,000 students.
Researchers discovered that students with higher emotional competence tended to score higher and have better achievement scores than those who had lower emotional intelligence. The surprising aspect of this massive study was that the conclusions held up with no regard whatsoever to the students’ ages. This led reserachers to theorize about why emotional competence plays such a strong role in acacdemic success.
It is as though students equipped with a higher level of emotional competence are better able to manage negative emotions like boredom, anxiety and disappointment all of which can have a direct impact on academic performance. Higher emotional competence also allows students to manage the social world around them much better to form relationships with instructors and to manage relationships with peers and family. It is also thought that these skills which contribute strongly to emotional competence are the same ones which can be used to master a number of academic subjects such as language and history.
What all this points to is the fact that it would seem desirable to initiate intervetnions which affect the entire school, helping to train instructors to develop emotional competence in students and providing programs which promote and encourage greater emotional competence.