Do Pakistani Preschoolers’ Social-Emotional Skills Relate to Their Academic Outcomes? Evidence from a Longitudinal Study

This longitudinal study examined how social and emotional skills predict academic outcomes among 453 Pakistani children (Mage = 60.0 months, SD = 8.2; 55% girls) from public, private and non-profit preschools. Children’s emotion knowledge, social skills, pre-literacy, and pre-numeracy were assessed twice, six months apart. Multi-level structural equation modelling revealed that, after controlling for initial academic outcomes, children’s early emotion knowledge significantly predicted later pre-literacy (β = .15) and pre-numeracy (β = .20), while early social skills did not predict pre-numeracy and negatively predicted pre-literacy (β = -.11). Mediation analyses revealed that emotion knowledge had significant indirect effects on academic outcomes through later social skills. Findings highlight the important role of emotion knowledge in Pakistani preschoolers’ early learning.