撒哈拉以南非洲地区的社会情感技能：行为和自我报告测量的验证和比较（英）2025

Policy Research Working Paper Socioemotional Skills in Sub-Saharan AfricaValidating and Comparing Behavioraland Self-Reported Measures Clara DelavalladeSmita DasLéa RouanetAidan ClerkinChris Gonzalez Policy Research Working Paper11201 Abstract This paper validates a new set of behavioral measures forsocioemotional skills across three Sub-Saharan Africancountries—Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, and Tanzania—andcompares them to widely used self-reported measures.The behavioral measures demonstrate strong psychomet-ric properties and are significantly associated with keyoutcomes, particularly in employment and income. Rela- economic outcomes, and self-reports are more predictiveof mental health. In two countries, changes in behav-ioral socioemotional skills over time significantly predictlabor market improvements—an effect not observed withself-reports—highlighting their value for program evalua-tion. Correlations between measurement types are modest,with variation often driven more by measurement modality This paper is a product of the Gender Innovation Lab, Africa Region. It is part of a larger effort by the World Bank toprovide open access to its research and make a contribution to development policy discussions around the world. PolicyResearch Working Papers are also posted on the Web at http://www.worldbank.org/prwp. The authors may be contacted The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about developmentissues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry thenames of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely thoseof the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and Socioemotional Skills in Sub-Saharan Africa:Validating and Comparing Behavioral and Clara Delavallade, Smita Das, Léa Rouanet, Aidan Clerkin, Chris Gonzalez, Julian Jamison1 JEL classification codes :J24, I31, O15 Keywords :Socioemotional skills, Behavioral measures, Economic empowerment, Labor market, Context for the study Socioemotional skills (SES; sometimes referred to as soft skills) have demonstrated their promise forimproving outcomes ranging from educational attainment, to employment, to mental health [1]. SESare individuals’ abilities to understand themselves and manage emotions, decisions, and relationshipsto achieve their goals. They are recognized as foundational [2], transferable across occupations [3]and settings (home, school, work, community), and are growing in importance with the rise of artificial In contexts like Côte d’Ivoire, where moving toward upper-middle-income country (UMIC) status is acentral objective of the forthcoming 2026–2030 National Development Plan, SES — especially thosetied to perseverance, problem-solving, and personal initiative — are seen as vital components of labor However, the current SES literature does not fully unpack whether some SES are rewarded more orface backlash – especially for women [8,9] – relative to others, whether particular skills arefoundational for the formation of others, which programs effectively improve which skills, and howthe returns to SES may differ with a population’s demographics, aspirations, social norms, andavailable opportunities. Central to this effort is the difficulty of defining, differentiating, and Here, we adopt the Effective Socio-emotional Skills to Gain Economic Empowerment (ESTEEM)framework of 14 SES to unpack which skills matter for employment and mental health, and weundertake an extensive process to measure these skills in Sub-Saharan Africa.2We use data fromthree randomized controlled trials: beneficiaries of an agribusiness program in Nigeria; a populationinterested in SES training in Tanzania that was not in full time education, employment or training For each of the 14 skills, we assembled and developed both self-report scales and behavioralmeasures. Though we attempted to use existing measures, we soon learned about the dearth ofmeasures that have been adapted and validated in LMICs, a key contribution of this work. [14]validate the self-report scales. Here, we validate the behavioral measures and, additionally, examine the relationships between SES measures and outcomes tied to employment and mental health, alsocomparing the use of self-reports and behavioral measures. Summary of key findings We find that the behavioral measures meet psychometric standards for reliability and factor structurewhen the full form of the measures is utilized. All behavioral skill measures significantly correlate witha large majority of outcomes. Behavioral measures tend to be more strongly related to economicoutcomes, while self-reports are more strongly related to mental health outcomes. In particular, Across samples, we