Competent fish in little ponds: Testing the relationship between academic achievement and social-emotional skills

Abstract

Given the increasing importance of social-emotional skills as educational outcomes, the current study attempts to extend the well-known big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE) from academic self-concept to social-emotional skills. We examined the effects of student- and school-level academic achievement on student social-emotional skills using the Chinese adolescent sample in the newly released cross-sectional OECD Survey on Social and Emotional Skills database (N = 7,246). Multilevel models showed that student math achievement positively predicted social-emotional skills, whereas school math achievement negatively predicted social-emotional skills, supporting the BFLPE. Student academic achievement could compensate for the negative BFLPE in support of the bright student hypothesis, indicating that the students with higher math scores would suffer less BFLPE. In particular, the BFLPE and bright student hypotheses existed for nine specific skills, namely, creativity, curiosity, tolerance, self-control, responsibility, persistence, assertiveness, self-efficacy, and achievement motivation. Additionally, the BFLPE did not vary by grade level and was only supported in the math domain rather than in reading. Practical implications and limitations are discussed.