Enhancing students’ resilience through socio-emotional skills: evidence from European educational systems through OECD PISA 2022 data

This study investigates the role of socio-emotional skills (SEmS) in fostering academic resilience among disadvantaged students, using data from the 2022 OECD PISA assessment. Combining regression analysis and machine learning, we find that competencies such as perseverance, assertiveness, curiosity and emotional control significantly correlate with student outcomes despite socio-economic challenges. School-level factors, including disciplinary climate and school-level truancy, also emerge as key predictors of academic resilience. The results suggest that integrating socio-emotional learning into educational programmes may be an effective strategy to reduce achievement gaps and support resilient pathways for disadvantaged learners.