Social-emotional competence profiles and their associations with psychological resilience, social support, and online social interaction needs among Chinese university students

Social-emotional competence (SEC) supports university adjustment, but variable-centered analyses may obscure how its dimensions combine within students. This cross-sectional study identified sample-specific SEC profiles and examined their associations with psychological resilience, social support, online social interaction needs, and demographic characteristics among 463 students from five universities in Guangzhou, China. Latent profile analysis used six SEC dimensions as indicators. A three-profile solution was retained after balancing fit, parsimony, class size, classification quality, and interpretability: low SEC (7.56%), moderate SEC (19.87%), and high SEC (72.57%). Profiles differed primarily in overall level, although the moderate profile showed a local weakness in management of others. BCH comparisons showed a graded resilience pattern (high > moderate > low), whereas support and online-interaction needs were higher in the high profile than in the other two profiles. Classification-error-adjusted R3STEP regression, with low SEC as the reference and demographic covariates included, showed that resilience was positively associated with moderate rather than low membership (OR = 2.26, p = 0.006) and high rather than low membership (OR = 6.53, p < 0.001). Other covariates did not significantly distinguish either profile from the low profile. These findings describe heterogeneity and correlates in this regional sample; they do not establish causal effects or population prevalence. Future intervention research may test whether resilience development and situated interpersonal practice facilitate movement toward more adaptive competence configurations.