Socio-Emotional Competencies for Educational Sustainability in Diverse Territorial Contexts: Emotional Metaknowledge in Secondary School Students in Chile

Socio-emotional competencies are increasingly recognized as a relevant dimension of educational sustainability because they are theoretically and empirically linked to student well-being, school coexistence, participation, and the development of more inclusive educational communities. This article examines self-perceived emotional metaknowledge in 181 first-year secondary school students from two Chilean schools located in contrasting territorial contexts: Santiago and Quillón, Ñuble Region. The TMMS-24 was used to assess three dimensions: Emotional Attention, Emotional Clarity, and Emotional Repair. After data cleaning, 181 valid cases were analyzed. Given the repeated-measures structure of the data, a mixed ANOVA was conducted, with emotional dimension as the within-subject factor and locality as the between-subject factor. Reliability analyses, assumption checks, effect sizes, confidence intervals, and Holm-adjusted post hoc comparisons were also included. The results showed no significant main effect of locality, suggesting that the overall level of self-perceived emotional metaknowledge did not differ significantly between Santiago and Quillón. However, a significant main effect of emotional dimension and a significant dimension × locality interaction were found. Emotional Repair obtained the highest scores in the total sample, while Santiago showed significantly higher Emotional Attention than Quillón. These findings suggest that emotional metaknowledge should be interpreted as a multidimensional construct, with specific differences across emotional dimensions rather than broad territorial contrasts. From the perspective of SDG 4, the study suggests the relevance of socio-emotional learning approaches that are context-sensitive, territorially aware, and oriented toward quality, equity, inclusion, and school coexistence.