Knowing Adolescents’ Social–Emotional Strengths

Abstract: A growing body of research highlights the importance of positive social–emotional capacities, such as empathy and emotion regulation, in reducing mental health risks. A key challenge in school-based assessment is the lack of tools that reliably capture core social–emotional capacities with sensitivity and specificity for mental health outcomes. This paper explores the Social–Emotional Responding Task (SERT; Malti, 2017 ) in identifying needs (behavioral difficulties; low prosocial behavior) and strengths (high prosocial behavior) of 656 Chinese adolescents aged 11 – 17 ( M age = 13.73, SD = 1.16, 44 % female). Needs and strengths were assessed using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ; Goodman, 1997 ). Results showed that the SERT differentiated adolescents with prosocial strengths and needs in both self- and caregiver reports, with moderate accuracy for empathy subscales and lower accuracy for emotion regulation. For behavioral difficulties, some self-reports showed low but significant accuracy, whereas caregiver reports did not consistently differentiate needs. SERT may complement established screening instruments by particularly capturing social–emotional strengths.