Social and Emotional Skills for Better Lives

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 Mexico. It draws on data from the Survey on Social and Emotional Skills (SSES) 2023.

SSES 2023 measured the following skills among 15-year-old students in Mexico:

• 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 Mexico 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), 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), and Suzhou (China)

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

Standardised differences referred to in this report quantify the size of the difference between two groups – such as differences in levels of stress resistance between boys and girls – using a common scale. The difference can be interpreted as the number of standard deviations, on average, by which the groups differ.

The OECD collaborated with the Secretariat of Public Education of Mexico as the national project partner to implement the SSES in Mexico. This work was made possible through the financial support of Echidna Giving, a sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.

For further analysis and 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).

Data for Mexico is considered not fully representative of the target population and present major deviations from several technical standards. For this reason, data for Mexico is excluded from the international average.

• 15-year-old girls in Mexico had lower levels of stress resistance, energy, emotional control, optimism, sociability, trust, self-control, assertiveness, and creativity than 15-year-old boys, on average. Gender differences in most of these skills were larger in Mexico than on average across sites.

• 15-year-old boys in Mexico had lower levels of achievement motivation, tolerance, empathy, and persistence than 15-year-old girls, on average. Gender differences in achievement motivation, tolerance and empathy in Mexico were similar to the average across sites. On average across sites there was no gender difference in persistence, yet such a difference emerged in a minority of sites including Mexico.

• Disadvantaged 15-year-old students in Mexico reported lower levels of open-mindedness skills (tolerance, creativity and curiosity), most engaging with others skills (sociability and assertiveness), stress resistance and persistence than advantaged students, on average.

• Differences in skill levels by socio-economic background in Mexico were smaller for creativity, curiosity and assertiveness compared to the average across sites. In addition, while disadvantaged students reported lower levels of all skills on average across sites, there were no significant differences by socio-economic background for around half of skills in Mexico (collaboration skills [empathy and trust], most task performance skills [responsibility, self-control and achievement motivation], and emotional control, optimism and energy).

• In Mexico, 46% of 15-year-olds had arrived late for school at least once in the two weeks prior to the SSES assessment, similar to the average across sites (48%). Skipping school was less common in Mexico, with 26% of students having skipped classes and 24% having skipped at least one day of school in the prior two weeks, below the respective averages of 29% and 31%.

• In Mexico, 93% of 15-year-olds expect to complete tertiary education, above the average across sites (84%).

• In Mexico, higher levels of task performance skills (achievement motivation, persistence, self-control, and responsibility) and assertiveness were associated with better grades in maths and reading among 15-year-old students. In addition, higher levels of other open-mindedness skills (creativity and tolerance), empathy, optimism and energy were also linked to better reading grades. Higher levels of all social and emotional skills except assertiveness and sociability, for which there was no relationship, were also linked to lower levels of absence and tardiness in Mexico.

• In Mexico, higher levels of all skills except trust and emotional control, for which there was no relationship, were linked to higher expectations of completing tertiary education. These relationships were strongest for achievement motivation, curiosity, persistence, empathy and tolerance.

• 15-year-old students in Mexico were more likely than on average across sites to report rarely eating fruit or vegetables (48% reported not eating fruit or vegetables most days, compared to 35% on average), skipping breakfast (47% reported skipping breakfast most days, compared to 37% on average) and rarely exercising (35% reported exercising only once a week or less, compared to 31% on average).

• On the other hand, 15-year-old students in Mexico were less likely than on average across sites to report not getting enough sleep (49% get less than 8 hours sleep most nights, compared to 57% on average) and having smoked or drunk alcohol (10% reporting having ever done this, compared to 17% on average).

• In Mexico, as in almost all sites, girls report worse levels of all six measures of health and well-being (life satisfaction, current psychological well-being, test and class anxiety, health behaviours, relationship satisfaction and body image) than boys, on average.

• Gender differences in life satisfaction and current psychological well-being were larger in Mexico than the average across sites. Gender differences in health behaviours, relationship satisfaction, body image and test and class anxiety in Mexico were similar to the average across sites.

• In Mexico, 15-year-old students with higher levels of all skills – particularly optimism – reported better health behaviours, life satisfaction, current psychological well-being, relationship satisfaction and body image. Higher levels of most skills (all except empathy, open-mindedness skills [curiosity, creativity and tolerance], persistence and achievement motivation) were associated with lower test and class anxiety in Mexico.

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.

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]).

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’.

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 Mexico 3,200 15-year-old students completed the assessment, representing about 633,600 15-year-old students.

[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.