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The development of non-cognitive skills in adolescence

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  • Hoeschler, Peter
  • Balestra, Simone
  • Backes-Gellner, Uschi

Abstract

We use a unique longitudinal data set to study the development of non-cognitive skills in adolescence. We measure – for the first time – the development over six years of the recently introduced non-cognitive skill “Grit.” We also measure the traditional Big Five personality traits. For Grit, we find significant within-person mean-level increases of about .5 standard deviation units for our sample of adolescent students. These increases are comparable with increases in the Big Five, where conscientiousness, agreeableness, and emotional stability also increase with similar magnitude. We show that these changes are heterogeneous and robust to reasonable measurement error.

Suggested Citation

  • Hoeschler, Peter & Balestra, Simone & Backes-Gellner, Uschi, 2018. "The development of non-cognitive skills in adolescence," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 40-45.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:163:y:2018:i:c:p:40-45
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2017.11.012
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    Cited by:

    1. Ildikó Kovács & Éva Réka Keresztes, 2022. "Young Employees’ Perceptions about Employability Skills for E-Commerce," Economies, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-28, December.
    2. Wehner, Caroline & de Grip, Andries & Pfeifer, Harald, 2022. "Do recruiters select workers with different personality traits for different tasks? A discrete choice experiment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    3. Marco Angrisani & Marco Cipriani & Antonio Guarino & Ryan Kendall & Julen Ortiz de Zarate Pina, 2023. "Noncognitive Skills at the Time of COVID-19: An Experiment with Professional Traders and Students," Staff Reports 1055, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    4. Peter Hoeschler & Uschi Backes-Gellner, 2017. "The Relative Importance of Personal Characteristics for the Hiring of Young Workers," Economics of Education Working Paper Series 0142, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW), revised Jan 2018.
    5. Backes-Gellner Uschi & Lehnert Patrick, 2023. "Berufliche Bildung als Innovationstreiber: Ein lange vernachlässigtes Forschungsfeld," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, De Gruyter, vol. 24(1), pages 85-97, April.
    6. Sarrias, Mauricio & Blanco, Alejandra, 2022. "Bodyweight and human capital development: Assessing the impact of obesity on socioemotional skills during childhood in Chile," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).
    7. Polemis, Michael, 2018. "Personality traits as an engine of knowledge: A quantile regression approach," MPRA Paper 88614, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Lordan, Grace & Mcguire, Alistair, 2019. "Widening the high school curriculum to include soft skill training: impacts on health, behaviour, emotional wellbeing and occupational aspirations," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 101234, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    9. Stina Rutberg & Lars Nyberg & Darla Castelli & Anna-Karin Lindqvist, 2020. "Grit as Perseverance in Physical Activity Participation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-10, January.
    10. Anna-Karin Lindqvist & Marie Löf & Anna Ek & Stina Rutberg, 2019. "Active School Transportation in Winter Conditions: Biking Together Is Warmer," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-14, January.
    11. Uschi Backes-Gellner, 2021. "Insights into the Economic Benefits of VPET for Individuals: Theoretical and Empirical Results for Researchers and Practitioners," Economics of Education Working Paper Series 0180, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW).
    12. Jonathan Norris, 2019. "Identify economics: social influence and skill development," Working Papers 1908, University of Strathclyde Business School, Department of Economics.
    13. Uschi Backes-Gellner & Patrick Lehnert, 2021. "The Contribution of Vocational Education and Training to Innovation and Growth," Economics of Education Working Paper Series 0177, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW).
    14. Jonathan Norris & Martijn van Hasselt, 2019. "Troubled in school: does maternal involvement matter for adolescents?," Working Papers 1906, University of Strathclyde Business School, Department of Economics.
    15. Fabienne Kiener & Ann-Sophie Gnehm & Uschi Backes-Gellner, 2023. "Noncognitive skills in training curricula and nonlinear wage returns," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 44(4), pages 772-788, February.
    16. Marcenaro-Gutierrez, O.D. & Lopez-Agudo, L.A. & Henriques, C.O., 2021. "Are soft skills conditioned by conflicting factors? A multiobjective programming approach to explore the trade-offs," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 18-40.
    17. Pan, Zheng & Luo, Yiyang, 2023. "Peers with special needs and students’ noncognitive performance: Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Non-cognitive skills; Grit; Big Five personality traits; Vocational education and training;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I26 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Returns to Education
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

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