Social and Emotional Skills for Better Lives

Jinan (China)

This site note provides an overview of how social and emotional skills are distributed among different student groups and how they relate to students’ health, well-being, educational outcomes and future aspirations in Jinan. It draws on data from the Survey on Social and Emotional Skills (SSES) 2023.

Jinan is the capital city of the Shandong province in eastern China.

SSES 2023 measured the following skills among 10- and 15-year-old students in Jinan:

• Task performance skills (persistence, responsibility, self-control and achievement motivation)

• Emotional regulation skills (stress-resistance, emotional control and optimism)

• Engaging with others skills (assertiveness, sociability and energy)

• Open-mindedness skills (curiosity, creativity and tolerance)

• Collaboration skills (empathy and trust)

Results for Jinan (China) in this note are compared to the average across participating sites. This average includes:

• Sites that participated in SSES 2023 in all analyses: Bulgaria, Bogotá (Colombia), Chile, Delhi (India), Dubai (United Arab Emirates), Emilia-Romagna (Italy), Gunma (Japan), Helsinki (Finland), Jinan (China), Kudus (Indonesia), Mexico, Peru, Sobral (Brazil), Spain, Turin (Italy) and Ukraine

• The following cities that participated in SSES 2019, where possible: Daegu (Korea), Houston (United States), Istanbul (Türkiye), Manizales (Colombia), Ottawa (Canada), Sintra (Portugal) and Suzhou (China)

Data for achievement motivation between 2019 and 2023 are not comparable, therefore analyses for this skill only include SSES 2023 sites.

All SSES 2019 sites surveyed both 10- and 15-year-olds, whereas surveying 10-year-olds became optional in SSES 2023. The average across sites for 10-year-olds therefore includes data from all SSES 2019 sites who did not participate in 2023 and the following SSES 2023 sites: Bogotá (Colombia), Helsinki (Finland), Jinan (China), Kudus (Indonesia), Sobral (Brazil) and Ukraine.

The OECD collaborated with East China Normal University as the national project partner to implement the SSES in Jinan (China).

For further information, refer to ‘Social and emotional skills for better lives: Findings from the OECD Survey on Social and Emotional Skills 2023’ and the Survey on Social and Emotional Skills 2023 Technical Report (forthcoming).

How are students’ social and emotional skills distributed across socio-demographic groups in Jinan?

Differences in skills between boys and girls

• 15-year-old girls in Jinan reported lower levels of most skills, on average, than 15-year-old boys: emotional regulation skills (stress resistance, emotional control and optimism), sociability, energy, creativity, curiosity, self-control and persistence. At age 10, girls reported lower levels of stress resistance, trust, creativity, curiosity, and emotional control than boys, on average. Compared to the average across sites, gender differences in Jinan at age 15 were larger in creativity but smaller in stress resistance, emotional control, energy, and optimism.

• 15-year-old boys in Jinan reported lower levels of assertiveness than 15-year-old girls, on average, whereas girls reported lower level of this skill in most other sites. At age 10, boys in Jinan did not report lower levels of any skills compared to 10-year-old girls, on average. There were no gender differences in responsibility, achievement motivation, empathy, or tolerance in Jinan at age 15, on average, whereas boys reported lower levels of these skills in almost all sites.

Figure 1. Largest gender differences in skills in Jinan at age 15

Standardised differences between the scores of 15-year-old girls and boys in Jinan compared to the average across sites

Note: The five skills with the largest gender differences in Jinan are included, ordered from the largest to smallest difference. All standardised differences between boys and girls are statistically significant with a threshold p < 0.05. Differences in Jinan that are significantly different to the average across sites are indicated by the asterisk against each skill.

Source: OECD, SSES 2023 Database Table B2.4

Differences in skills between advantaged and disadvantaged students

• Disadvantaged 15-year-old students in Jinan reported lower levels of all social and emotional skills except trust, on average, than advantaged 15-year-olds. There were no significant differences by socio-economic background in levels of trust in Jinan. Disadvantaged 10-year-olds in Jinan reported lower levels of all skills, on average, compared to advantaged 10-year-olds.

• In Jinan, differences by socio-economic background tend to be larger than other sites. Jinan had the largest differences between advantaged and disadvantaged students of all sites at age 15 in several skills: achievement motivation, creativity, emotional control, responsibility, self-control, sociability, and stress resistance. Differences in assertiveness, curiosity, energy, optimism, and tolerance were also larger than the average across sites.

Figure 2. Largest differences between advantaged and disadvantaged students in skills in Jinan at age 15

Standardised differences between the scores of 15-year-old advantaged and disadvantaged students in Jinan compared to the average across sites

Note: The five skills with the largest socio-economic differences in Jinan are included, ordered from the largest to smallest difference. All standardised differences between advantaged and disadvantaged students are statistically significant with a threshold p < 0.05. Differences in Jinan that are significantly different to the average across sites are indicated by the asterisk against each skill.

Source: OECD, SSES 2023 Database Table B2.5

Differences in skills between 10- and 15-year-olds

• 15-year-olds in Jinan reported lower levels of all skills than 10-year-olds, on average, with the exception of empathy, where there were no significant age differences.

• Compared to other sites that surveyed both cohorts, the differences between 10- and 15-year-olds in Jinan were larger than the average across sites for most skills. Jinan had the largest age differences of all sites for achievement motivation, assertiveness, and energy and the second largest for creativity, curiosity, emotional control, persistence, responsibility, self-control, and stress resistance.

• While 15-year-olds reported higher levels of empathy and tolerance than 10-year-olds in almost all other sites, in Jinan, 10-year-olds reported higher levels of tolerance compared to 15-year-olds and there were no significant age differences in empathy.

Figure 3. Largest age differences in skills in Jinan

Standardised differences between the scores of 10 and 15-year-old students in Jinan compared to the average across sites

Note: The five skills with the largest age differences in Jinan are included, ordered from the largest to smallest difference. All standardised differences between 10- and 15-year-olds are statistically significant with a threshold p < 0.05. Differences in Jinan that are significantly different to the average across sites are indicated by the asterisk against each skill.

Source: OECD, SSES 2023 Database Table B2.3

How are students’ social and emotional skills linked to their educational outcomes and career prospects in Jinan?

Levels of absence and tardiness and students’ ambitions for the future

• In Jinan, 39% of 15-year-olds had arrived late for school at least once in the two weeks prior to the SSES assessment, below the average across sites (48%). Rates of skipping school were also lower than on average across sites. In Jinan, 8% of students had skipped classes and 2% had skipped at least one day of school in the two weeks prior, well below the average across sites of 29% and 31% respectively.

• In Jinan, 96% of 15-year-olds expect to complete tertiary education, above the average across sites (84%). In Jinan, 52% expect to have a managerial or professional job when they are 30, below the average across sites (57%).

Relationships between social and emotional skills and academic outcomes

• In Jinan, higher levels of all task performance (achievement motivation, persistence and self-control) and most open-mindedness (curiosity and tolerance) skills were associated with better grades in maths, reading and arts among 15-year-old students. In addition, responsibility, assertiveness, creativity, optimism, stress resistance, energy and emotional control were linked to higher grades in mathematics and reading, while empathy and sociability were related to higher grades in arts. The relationships between skills and grades were stronger in Jinan than the average across sites for trust, but smaller for task performance skills and emotional control.

• 15-year-old students in Jinan with higher levels of most skills, particularly task performance skills (achievement motivation, responsibility, persistence, and self-control) and emotional control tended to report being late and skipping school less often. There was no relationship between assertiveness, empathy, and sociability and these behaviours.

Figure 4. Relationships between students’ social and emotional skills and grades in Jinan compared to the average across sites

Standardised regression coefficients of individual skills on maths and reading grades among 15-year-olds in Jinan compared to the average across sites

Note: Significant coefficients at a threshold of p < 0.05 are coloured, non-significant coefficients are outlined. Coefficients in Jinan that are significantly different to the average across sites are indicated by the asterisk against each skill.

Source: OECD, SSES 2023 Database Tables B4.1 and B4.4

Relationships between social and emotional skills and students’ ambitions for the future

• In Jinan, 15-year-olds with higher levels of open-mindedness skills (curiosity, tolerance and creativity) as well as achievement motivation, responsibility, assertiveness, and energy were more likely to expect to complete tertiary education. Achievement motivation, curiosity and responsibility were also related to expectation to have a managerial or professional job at age 30 in Jinan, as were persistence, trust, empathy, self-control, and optimism. Some skills were unrelated to either expectation, namely emotional control, stress resistance and sociability.

• Compared to the average across sites, the relationship between skills and the expectation to complete tertiary education were smaller in Jinan than the average across sites for curiosity, achievement motivation, tolerance, assertiveness, responsibility, creativity, and energy. For expectations to hold a managerial job at age 30, the relationship to trust was larger than average and smaller for curiosity and self-control.

Figure 5. Relationships between students’ social and emotional skills and their future aspirations in Jinan compared to the average across sites

Standardised regression coefficients of individual skills on students’ expectations to complete tertiary education and have a managerial or professional job in the future among 15-year-olds in Jinan compared to the average across sites

Note: Significant coefficients at a threshold of p < 0.05 are coloured, non-significant coefficients are outlined. Coefficients in Jinan that are significantly different to the average across sites are indicated by the asterisk against each skill.

Source: OECD, SSES 2023 Database Tables B4.19 and B4.30

How are students’ social and emotional skills linked to their health and well-being outcomes in Jinan?

Students’ health behaviours

• 15-year-old students in Jinan reported higher frequencies compared to the average across sites of most healthy behaviours: eating breakfast, eating fruits and vegetables, exercising, and avoiding cigarettes and drinking alcohol. In fact, 68% of 15-year-olds report eating breakfast and 60% report eating fruits and vegetables every day in Jinan, while 92% report never smoking or drinking. However, 73% of 15-year-olds in Jinan reported getting less than 8 hours of sleep most nights, the second highest percentage among sites.

• Students with healthier behaviours in Jinan tended to report higher levels of all social and emotional skills, especially achievement motivation, persistence, energy, and optimism. The relationship between health behaviours and all task performance, engaging with others and open-mindedness skills, as well as stress resistance, emotional control and trust, were larger in Jinan compared to the average.

Figure 6. Percentage of 15-year-old students engaging in unhealthy behaviours in Jinan compared to the average across sites

Note: Frequencies of each behaviour that are significantly different to the average across sites are indicated by an asterisk against the behaviour.

Source: OECD, SSES 2023 Database Table B3.3

Gender differences in health and well-being outcomes

• On average across sites, girls reported lower levels of all health and well-being outcomes than boys at age 15. Jinan also shows these trends, across all indices. Girls reported poorer levels of life satisfaction, psychological well-being, test and class anxiety, health behaviours, relationship satisfaction, body image than boys, on average.

• In Jinan, gender differences were larger in relationship satisfaction compared to the average across sites, while gender differences in test and class anxiety, life satisfaction, psychological well-being, health behaviours and body image were smaller than average.

Relationships between social and emotional skills and students’ health and well-being outcomes

• In Jinan, higher levels of all skills were associated with greater health behaviours, life satisfaction, current psychological well-being, relationship satisfaction and body image among 15-year-olds. Higher levels of all skills except achievement motivation and empathy were also associated with lower levels of test and class anxiety in Jinan.

• Among 15-year-olds in Jinan, the relationships between skills and all six health and well-being outcomes (health behaviours, life satisfaction, current psychological well-being, relationship satisfaction, body image and test and class anxiety) were stronger than the average across sites for most skills, particularly those in the domains of task performance, open-mindedness and engaging with others.

Key features of SSES 2023

What is the Survey on Social and Emotional Skills?

The Survey on Social and Emotional Skills (SSES) is an international survey designed by the OECD’s Centre for Educational Research and Innovation to improve understanding of social and emotional skills among 10- and 15-year-old students. The Survey aims to understand how levels of these skills differ among students with different characteristics; how these skills matter for important student outcomes; and how students’ school and home environments influence skill development.

Which social and emotional skills are covered in the Survey?

The 15 skills measured in the Survey were selected to provide a comprehensive coverage of those that are relevant for children’s and adolescents’ success and well-being. Further information on why and how these skills were selected can be found in the SSES assessment framework (Kankaraš and Suarez-Alvarez, 2019[1]).

How were these skills measured?

All students complete a questionnaire where they indicate the extent to which they agree or disagree with a series of statements. Examples of statements include: ‘I keep working on a task until it is finished’, ‘I stay calm even in tense situations’ and ‘I am able to defend my interests when they are challenged’.

Who participated in the Survey?

All sites in SSES 2023 surveyed 15-year-olds and surveying 10-year-olds was optional. Students in sixteen sites – six countries and ten sub-national entities – participated in SSES 2023. Data from seven sites who participated in the first round of SSES in 2019, but not in 2023, are also included in analyses in this report wherever possible to expand the coverage of the international average.

Some 18,000 10-year-old and 52,000 15-year-old students took the SSES assessment in 2023, representing about 630,000 10-year-olds and 3 million 15-year-olds in the schools of the 16 participating sites. In Jinan, 3,900 10-year-old and 3,700 15-year-old students completed the assessment, representing about 105,500 10-year-old and 71,200 15-year-old students.

References

[1] Kankaraš, M. and J. Suarez-Alvarez (2019), “Assessment framework of the OECD Study on Social and Emotional Skills”, OECD Education Working Papers, No. 207, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/5007adef-en.