COLUMBUS – Some sociologists believe that emotional development is at least as important – if not more important — than intelligence in determining an individual’s success in life and researchers at OSU have been given the chance to study how accurate that theory is.
“There’s growing recognition that children’s success depends on more than just intelligence and how they perform academically,” said Elizabeth Cooksey, professor of sociology at Ohio State and director of Ohio State University’s Center for Human Resource Research.
“Whether it is at work, in their relationships, or with their families, social and emotional skills are as crucial as cognitive skills in determining how well people do in life. This study aims to explore those issues,” she said
The center has been selected by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to help lead a multinational study on social and emotional skills in children.
During the Study on Social and Emotional Skills, Cooksey and Randall Olsen, professor emeritus of economics and the center’s former director, will survey 3,000 10- and 15-year-olds in each of 10 to 12 cities around the world, as well as the children’s parents and teachers, to identify what conditions and practices foster or hinder a child’s critical social and emotional skills.
“We want to end up with an improved understanding of how social and emotional skills contribute to children’s development. The ultimate goal is to be able to recommend policies and practices that will support the development of those skills,” Cooksey said.
The study is scheduled to get underway next year with the public release of the findings by the OECD expected in late 2020.
The OECD is an intergovernmental organization with 35 member countries, including the United States, which promotes policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world.
The Center for Human Resource Research was established at OSU 50 years ago and is perhaps best known for managing the massive National Longitudinal Surveys, a related group of seven surveys, three of which are still ongoing, that have interviewed more than 54,000 Americans over the past 50 years on a variety of issues and traced changing attitudes and priorities within an entire generation of Americans.