Summary of the “Research Report on the Development of Non-cognitive (Socioemotional) Skills and Scientific Examination Methods”

1. Purpose and Summary of the Research Study(1) Purpose of the research study
Traditionally, interest has mainly been focused on cognitive skills as typified by IQ as support fora person’s life-long adaptability. However, in recent years, many research findings have been taking acloser look, and the importance of non-cognitive aspects, the so-called non-cognitive skills, has been
gaining attention. Nonetheless, these skills have not been sufficiently organized so as to address exactly
what non-cognitive skills are. In this research project, two goals were established so as to be able toobtain results that would contribute to the development of specific discussions on what are describedas non-cognitive skills. First, the study aimed to show the exact contents of non-cognitive skills by
examining the literature of related academic fields. Furthermore, the study set out to investigate
methods of conducting scientific examinations taking into account the current situation where in therelated research fields, non-cognitive skills are seen not only as an abstract concept but as the subjectof measurements and descriptions. As a second goal, we measured and described some of the noncognitive skills of Japanese children, and set out to study the development and actual situation of thechildren.

(2) Summary of the research study
In the research, with regard to the various characteristics of human beings, which are referred toas non-cognitive skills, the focus, in particular, was on “socio-emotional competence”. This refers tothe actions and attitudes which lead to “social adaptability in relation to the relationship between self
and others and with groups” and “mental and physical health and growth”, and also the psychologicaltraits that make them possible. Psychological traits here include recognition, awareness,understanding, beliefs, knowledge, skills, attributes, and so on.
For the first goal, we collected a wide range of research findings and conducted a literature survey
in the areas of developmental psychology, educational psychology, developmental science, and otherareas where there has been a lot of research on the development and content of socio-emotional
competence; and on the effects of non-cognitive skills in the field of economics and other fields. In
order to organize the exact contents of socio-emotional competence for each stage of development, theresearch was carried out according to three groups: “infancy period”, “early childhood”, and“childhood and adolescence”. Moreover, with regard to socio-emotional competence, since multiple
large-scale longitudinal studies have been conducted spanning a number of developmental stages tostudy the relationship between development and environmental factors, as well as the relationship withthe various consequences, such research findings were categorized in the “long-term longitudinalstudies group”.
For the second goal, we measured the socio-emotional competence of infants, preschoolers,children and students. For infants and preschool children, measurements and descriptions wereconducted on a small scale using methods such as behavioral experiments, observations, andquestionnaires to parents. For children and students, we conducted a large-scale, two-year survey ofelementary school students, lower secondary school students and upper secondary school students andtheir families and school teachers with the cooperation of the local governments, schools and others.

Project Period: 2015 - 2016, Research Project Leader: Toshihiko Endo (Senior Visiting Fellow)

Summary of the Research Outcomes(1) Research trends for non-cognitive skills ... Part 1
The study presented research trends for non-cognitive skills and socio-emotional competence in thefields of economics and psychology as well as research conducted by international organizations. We
also discussed what led to the interest in focusing our research on the competencies that people possess,what these research results signify, and the perspective of utilizing these competencies in society andeducation, and in addition, the points to bear in mind when discussing and utilizing the competencies
in the teaching field on the basis of our organization of the research findings.

(2) Literature survey on socio-emotional competence ... Part 2
In Part 3, Chapters 1 to 4, we compiled a list based on the findings of the contents of the socioemotional competencies in which significant development and use were noted for each developmental
stage of infancy, early childhood, childhood and adolescence. As well as the name, definition andmethods used to measure socio-emotional competence (experiments, observations, tasks,questionnaires, etc.), we compiled our research findings on the factors (characteristics of the social andphysical environment and other characteristics of the individuals) predicting the development of thecompetencies, and consequences (cognitive ability, physical and mental health, psychologicalvariables, socio-economic conditions, etc.) which are related to or predict the state of competence.
Furthermore, each competence was divided into the three categories of “behavior and attitude related
to oneself, and psychological traits” (e.g., self-awareness, the development of emotions and control
over them, behavior control, motivation, disposition, personality); “behavior and attitude, towards
people with whom one has a relationship, and psychological traits” (e.g., awareness and understandingof the feelings of others, and understanding the relationship with the actions and feeling of others), and“interpersonal relationships, behavior and attitude relating to social and environmental relationships,and psychological traits” (e.g., attachment, use of emotional words and skills related to communication

and sociability). Based on this organization of the findings, Table 1 shows the flow of the developmentof competence for easy understanding, and Table 2 is given at the end as a summary of the definition,measurement methods, predictive factors, and consequences of each competency.
Chapter 5 of Part 2 presents the results of literature surveys for large-scale longitudinal studies onsocio-emotional competence. In particular, in other countries, the surveys use a large sample toexamine the long-term development of competence, the impact on competence from the physicalenvironment and context, and the relationship between the state of competence and various
consequences, and in addition, conduct multiple long-term follow-up surveys. In addition tosummarizing the findings obtained from these large-scale studies, such content as the project names,
objectives, subjects, and the principal variables of the long-term longitudinal research projects whichhave been carried out thus far are listed in the table at the end of Chapter 5.
(3) Measuring the Socio-emotional Competence of Children ... Part 3
In Part 3, Chapter 1, the focus was on the development of social communication and behavior associo-emotional competence in infancy, and empirical research was conducted through experiments
and observations. The characteristic of sensitivity towards others measured in early infancy isrecognized to be related to communication and behavior in the late infancy period. In Chapter 2, we
conducted an empirical research on the development of self-control in infancy and the understandingof other’s feelings and beliefs. From a series of experiments, observations and measurements using
questionnaires, we were able to show that these socio-emotional competencies see remarkabledevelopment in early childhood, and moreover, that there is a need to further study the influence of anurturing environment on development. It should be noted that the empirical research on infants andyoung children was a preliminary study based on a small sample, and therefore the results of themeasurements and analyses obtained here are somewhat limited, but the study indicates procedures
and measurement methods of empirical research for infants, which may be used as information thatwill contribute to the design of later larger-scale research.
In Part 3, Chapter 3, as a fact-finding survey into socio-emotional competence relating to childhood
and adolescence, we present the methods and some of the results of the survey conducted of elementary,lower secondary and upper secondary school students. Bearing in mind the age at which the children
would be capable of answering the questionnaires for themselves, a survey was conducted of 4th and5th grade elementary school students, 1st and 2nd grade lower secondary school students, and 1st and 2nd
grade upper secondary school students. After the first survey was conducted in FY2015, a second
survey was carried out in FY2016 as a follow-up survey at a time when the respondents would havegone up a grade. The survey questions covered a broad range using questions used in previous surveys
in Japan and abroad as a means of measuring socio-emotional competence, as well as surveys whichattempted to grasp the children’s lives both inside and outside of school. As well as the children, we
also conducted a survey of their parents and school teachers in order to obtain information on thecharacteristics of the environment considered to be related to the socio-emotional competence of thechildren.
From the results of the first stage of the survey analyzed thus far, we have been able to obtain basic
data indicating the actual state of the various socio-emotional competencies of the children. In thecontext of Japan, empirical data to be used in determining policies on nurturing the socio-emotional
competence of children is clearly lacking. Amid such a situation, although this survey targeted schools
which had been selected by the boards of education, the results are not necessarily representative ofthe whole of Japan, but the significance of the survey is great in that empirical data was obtained
through a survey measuring a large number of variables for a large sample. By conducting a survey
with such a large sample size, we were able to give descriptive statistics and reliability indicators of
the scaled scores that measured socio-emotional competence, and to show reference values for theactual situation of children in Japan, and to obtain valuable data showing that the measurement scaleof socio-emotional competence can be used in the future for Japanese children and adolescents. Inaddition, through an analysis of the relationship between the measured competencies, the functions of
the emotional intelligence of the children, and the attachments built with their teachers and friends areseen to have a correlation with the efforts and motivation of students towards learning.
In the future, we will continue to conduct an analysis at the second stage of the survey, and withregard to the results of the measurements of the socio-emotional competencies, we will be studying thepoints in common and differences with the values indicated by previous research in order to examine
the actual state of Japanese children. We are also planning to analyze the development of socioemotional competence, the relationship between the competencies and academic and school adaptation,
the degree of happiness and other aspects as well as conducting an analysis to gain insight into thecharacteristics of the social and physical environment related to the competencies.