Does school climate affect students’ social and emotional skills? The importance of relationships

Abstract Social and emotional learning (SEL) is key to an individual’s success throughout life and can be fostered in children’s daily settings. School climate has the potential to promote or hinder the development of SEL in students. However, it is not clear from previous research which specific aspects of school climate relate to which SEL skills. This study conducts a secondary data analysis of the Portuguese data from the OECD’s 2019 Study on Social and Emotional Skills, exploring the relationships between school climate, namely, interpersonal relationships and teaching and learning practices, and 10-year-old students’ social and emotional skills, through a structural equation modeling approach. Results show that peer relationships most strongly affect all social and emotional skills, followed by relationships with teachers, whereas bullying experiences negatively affect students’ SEL. Contrary to what was hypothesized, teaching practices, such as teacher pedagogies, cooperative strategies, and active learning strategies, showed some negative effects on students’ SEL, with no effects on most skills. Lastly, some school climate dimensions (i.e., school-level relationships, student evaluation practices) showed no effects on social and emotional skills, suggesting a more distal role. These results show interactions taking place inside the classroom and focused on relationships, instead of instruction, seem to play a more significant role in students’ social and emotional development. This study aims to guide the daily practice of teachers in supporting their students’ SEL development and to inform school administrations, local, and national public policy on how to best leverage school processes to support students’ SEL.