Differences and Similarities in Youth Social-emotional Competence Measurement Between North American and East Asian Countries: Exploratory Graph Analysis using the OECD Survey on Social and Emotional Skills Data

Social-emotional competence (SEC) is a multidimensional construct involving diverse skills and mindsets contributing to intrapersonal and interpersonal well-being. Despite increasing efforts to promote youth SEC worldwide, the existing SEC measurements are largely based on frameworks and evidence originating from Western societies, questioning the applicability of prevalent SEC measurement models to non-Western contexts. This study aims to compare a measurement model of SEC between East Asian (EA) and North American (NA) countries. This study analyzed youth self-reports from the 2018 OECD Survey on Social and Emotional Skills (SSES; N = 25,454, age 10 and 15) from two countries in EA (China and South Korea) and two countries in NA (Canada and USA). Based on the Big Five personality model, the SSES was designed to measure five dimensions and 15 sub-constructs of SEC using 100 Likert-type items. Using a network psychometrics method called Exploratory Graph Analysis, we uncovered and compared the underlying structure of the multidimensional construct of youth SEC between EA and NA samples. The findings suggest that the SSES measurement model is largely comparable across two cultures, with some noteworthy differences. The commonly identified dimensions of SEC were: (1) Emotional Control, (2) Optimism, (3) Task Performance, (4) Open-mindedness, (5) Prosociality, and (6) Leadership. The differences observed in the structure of dimensions and sub-constructs are discussed. This study contributes to ongoing efforts to develop and enhance international SEC assessments that are cross-culturally applicable and comparable.