The Roles of Social-Emotional Skills in Students’ Academic and Life Success: A Multi-Informant, Multi-Cohort Perspective

Although social-emotional skills are more malleable than cognitive skills and have potential benefits for a range of academic and life outcomes, previous studies on the topic have suffered from many issues (e.g., consideration of only a small subset of skills, single-informant and single-cohort design). To address these limitations, this study used a multi-informant (self, teacher, and parent) and multi-cohort (ages 10 and 15 from Finland, N = 5,533) perspective to study the association between social-emotional skills and 20 educational (e.g., school grades and engagement), psychological (e.g., life satisfaction, social relationships), and health outcomes (e.g., eating habits, sleep trouble). Results showed that (a) there was a modest level of inter-rater agreement on social-emotional skills, with the highest agreement between students and parents (mean r = .41); (b) inclusion of multi-informant ratings substantially enhanced the ability of social-emotional skills in predicting outcome variables, with parent- and self-rated skills playing important, unique roles; (c) by modeling skills at the facet-level rather than at the domain-level, we identified the key skills for different outcomes and found significant variation in facets’ predictive utility even within the same domain; (d) although the old cohort showed lower levels of most social-emotional skills (9/15), there were only very minor changes in the inter-rater agreement and predictive utility on outcomes. Overall, Self-Control, Optimism, Trust, and Energy were found among the four most important skills for academic and life success. We further identifed unique contribution of each skill for certain outcomes, which points the way to effective and precise interventions.

Social-behavioral development

The early child period is considered to be the crucial in the human life-span development. Healthy and normal early development of a child, including his/her physical, cognitive, emotional, and social development, strongly influences the subsequent personal and social functioning, well-being and life success. Behavioral development, and in particular social/behavioral development, is a crucial tool for survival and adaptation. In this article, three mechanisms that work in an interrelated and cooperative way in determining behavioral development will be discussed in more detail. Given the purpose and design of this paper, we will focus on some of the latest studies of the environmental factors considered to have the power to influence ontogenetic behavioral development and in particular, social/behavioral development.

Tolerance to Uncertainty in Adolescence as aPsychological Problem

The article considers the problem of uncertainty as an integral attribute of modern human life. The importance of forming tolerance to uncertainty as an important means of organizing the life path of an individual is revealed. It is determined that the very ability of a young person to find his place in society, to properly build interpersonal relationships within the uncertainty of life events affects the future of both professional and life success. A young person in situations of uncertainty chooses one of two main strategies of action: destructive and constructive, which depends on the motivation and significance of the event for the individual. Scientists have developed different methods for studying tolerance / intolerance to uncertainty. This article presents the results of an empirical study that reveals the features of the development of tolerance for uncertainty in student youth

TRANSFORMING THE VALUES OF ACHIEVING THE LIFE SUCCESS OF MILITARY INSTITUTE CADETS

The transformation of the values of achieving the life success of cadets was investigated, their differences in views and preferences in 2014, as well as 2020 were revealed. As a result of the analysis of these empirical studies, it is justified that the combination of basic values "self-confidence," "hard work and perseverance," "patriotism" in modern conditions, on the one hand, is filled with specific content, on the other hand, it seems as the most necessary and positive factor in the implementation by cadets of achieving life success. It has been proved that as a result of military reforms, several trends are being formed to transform the values of achieving the life success of students of a military institute: a group of cadets is stably preserved, for whom "self-confidence" is the main value of achieving life success; the composition of cadets - "workaholics" linking priority values with "hard work, as well as perseverance in the process of achieving the goals" is reduced; a group of cadets is growing - "patriots" completely devoted to the country, ready for self-sacrifice in the name of the good of the Motherland. The interest of young people in gaining a military profession is increasing, the quality of the potential of those entering military institutions is steadily increasing, and the motivational values of achieving their life success are steadily developing.

Social Connections

How individuals connect to others, buy wanted products, and work to achieve shared goals determine their opportunities for health and life success. In this century, companies like Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft now decide how people can connect with others. By collecting data on purchases, behavior, and beliefs from their customers’ hardware, digital and cellphone use, Big Tech companies have created surveillance capitalism where personal data is a commodity to buy and sell. By targeting users for digital ads for unhealthy products; giving bullies access to a global audience; using likes and dislike to polarize people into opposing factions; or selling personal information to advertisers and special interests, these companies have compromised health, democracy, and privacy. In response, tech workers, social media users, privacy groups, and anti-monopoly reformers have challenged the domination of Big Tech companies and forged ways to use technology for human well-being instead of corporate profit.

On the Problem of Formation of Motivation for Success: Sociological and Psychological Approaches

The article examines the problem of the motivation for success formation from the point of view of a psychological and sociological approach, analyzes different types of motivation. The components of social and life success of the individual are revealed, the motivation of the individual is presented as a component of self-realization through the analysis of N. K. Mikhailovsky, R. S. Covey.

Features of Students Ideas about Life Success

The article presents the results of the analysis of scientific research studying the problem of life success and the features of the ideas about it among students of different genders and specialties. The features of understanding of success, successfulness, success in life, as well as the process of achieving it, which is determined by personal motivation for changes and development, accompanied by the energy status of activity, a positive emotional state, leading to the achievement of the desired goal in a certain area of social life and the well-being of the individual, have been determined. The results of the ascertaining experiment confirm the research assumption that the peculiarities of students' ideas about success in life are determined by their gender and the choice of professional specialization. It was found that girls and boys mainly focus on material values, their own self-realization and career growth, which can hinder the maximum comprehensive implementation and high quality of life of the individual in the future. Achieving goals and money as part of life's success are often high on the minds of students, regardless of their specialization. The exceptions are lawyers, for whom self-realization is more important, TV journalists, for whom money comes first, and actors, for whom the most important thing is to satisfy their needs and respect others. Most students assess their level of life success as medium or low, which can reduce their level of motivation, self-esteem, self-efficacy in the implementation of aspirations and requires the development of special psychological recipes to optimize the process of achieving their life success.

Resilience and Its Importance to Online Students

Resilience is a key life success trait that can spell the distinction in success or failure of learning experiences for students. The online classroom is characterized by some unique challenges regarding student resilience. These challenges, as well as prospective strategies to overcome them, will be specifically discussed in the areas of technology, communication, and student assessment. Individual focus will be given to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown on mandated all-online instruction and its impacts on resilience of students, many of whom were suddenly required to adapt to online learning. Understanding the factors that facilitate development of online student resilience will enable instructors to create maximally effective learning experiences for their students.

THE VALUE OF YOUNG WOMEN’S APPEARANCE

The article deals in studying how the value of the external attractiveness of young women influences various aspects of their life in society. The data are given, allowing to describe that value as basic, having the motive-forming and compensatory functions. The results are presented that reveal a high degree of importance of appearance for young women: achieving a higher social status, a luxurious life, a successful career in management and entrepreneurship. The author sees the regularity in the relationship between external attractiveness and agharmonic components of the initiative, egoism and selfishness. He also outlines a negative relation between the significance of the considered value and the attitude to labor and work. When the appearance is attained too much of significance with the young women, they tend to get rid of some generally accepted norms. At the same time, girls associate the value of their attractiveness with well-being in interpersonal relationships and life success.