Socioemotional Skills Development in Highly Violent Contexts : Measurements and Impacts
Non-cognitive skills can determine socioeconomic success and the transmission of economic status across generations. Yet, evidence of cost-effective interventions that aim to develop these skills for at-risk youth living in highly violent contexts...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Washington, DC: World Bank
2022
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/573591646665166695/Socioemotional-Skills-Development-in-Highly-Violent-Contexts-Measurements-and-Impacts http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37109 |
| Summary: | Non-cognitive skills can determine
socioeconomic success and the transmission of economic
status across generations. Yet, evidence of cost-effective
interventions that aim to develop these skills for at-risk
youth living in highly violent contexts is still scarce.
This paper experimentally studies the social-emotional
learning and protection components of an After School
Program (ASP) for teenagers in the most violent
neighborhoods of El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. By
combining administrative records and data gathered on-site
via computer from task-based games and AI-powered emotion
detection algorithms, this paper measures the ASP's
impacts on behavior, academic performance, and non-cognitive
skills. To measure the learning component, 21 public schools
were randomly assigned to extracurricular activities
(Clubs), a psychology-based curriculum that aims to
strengthen participants' character (Virtue), or a
mindfulness and relaxation technique program (Mindful). To
estimate the protection component, 8 schools were selected
as pure controls with a propensity score approach. Results
show that the net learning component improved behavior at
school by 0.46 standard deviations and reduced a proxy for
stress by 0.45 standard deviations relative to the Clubs
only ASP. These results were driven by the Virtue
curriculum. Although the protection component negatively
impacts social-emotional skills, it is, on average, more
effective for students with worse behavior at baseline,
indicating that the ASP curriculum and the characteristics
of the population served are key in designing policies aimed
at improving students' behavior. |
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