Imma Perfetto
Cosmos science journalist
A large new Nature Human Behaviour study has found that non-cognitive emotional and social skills, which are known to be as important as intelligence in determining children’s academic success, become more important as children age.
The research highlights the importance of continuing to foster the development of non-cognitive skills during primary and secondary education.
“We’ve found compelling evidence that non-cognitive skills – such as grit, perseverance, academic interest, and value attributed to learning – are not only significant predictors of success but that their influence grows stronger over time,” says Dr Margherita Malanchini, a senior lecturer in psychology at Queen Mary University of London, UK, who co-led the research.
Previous research has found that, independent of a child’s level of cognitive ability, those who are emotionally stable, motivated and capable of regulating their attention and impulses tend to do better in school.
The link between these non-cognitive abilities and academic performance is known to be due, in part, to genetics.
The new study aimed to explore whether this association changes over the course of development.
UK researchers studied more than 10,000 English and Welsh children aged 7 to 16 years old using DNA analysis, twin studies, and by comparing siblings living within the same family environment.
“We discovered that genetic effects associated with non-cognitive skills become increasingly predictive of academic achievement over the school years, in fact their effect nearly doubles between the ages of 7 and 16,” says Dr Andrea Allegrini, a research fellow at University College London who co-led the research.
“By the end of compulsory education, genetic dispositions towards non-cognitive skills were equally as important as those related to cognitive abilities in predicting academic success.”
There was no evidence that children’s socio-economic status effected this trend.
They then compared non-identical (fraternal) twins to determine whether the findings could be explained by shared environmental influences experienced when growing up in the same household.
“We found that while family-wide processes play a significant role, the increasing influence of non-cognitive genetics on academic achievement remained evident even within families,” says Allegrini.
“This suggests that children may actively shape their own learning experiences based on their personality, dispositions, and abilities, creating a feedback loop that reinforces their strengths.”
The findings have important implications for the UK education system, which Malanchini says has traditionally focused on cognitive development.
“It’s time to rebalance that focus and give equal importance to nurturing non-cognitive skills. By doing so, we can create a more inclusive and effective learning environment for all students,” she says.
While the UK curriculum does include compulsory subjects, such as English, maths, and science, it does not outline compulsory teachings around social and emotional development.
In Australia, the Principal of Booragoon Primary School in Perth, Barbara Horan, told Cosmos that schools have long recognised, understood, and acted upon the research supporting Social and Emotional (S&E) development as part of a balanced curriculum.
“When I started as Principal, at Willandra Primary way back in 2007, the school had a well-established S&E program from Kindy to Year 7,” Mrs Horan says.
“We know that academic achievement is totally underpinned by the non-cognitive domains. They are spelled out in the General Capabilities in the Australian Curriculum, (ACARA) and the West Australian Curriculum, which are compulsory in all schools.”
Within the Australian Curriculum’s Personal and Social Capability students learn to understand themselves and others, and manage their relationships, lives, work and learning more effectively.
