Socioemotional Skills in Sub-Saharan Africa : Validating and Comparing Behavioral and Self-Reported Measures

This paper validates a new set of behavioral measures for socioemotional skills across three Sub-Saharan African countries—Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, and Tanzania—and compares them to widely used self-reported measures. The behavioral measures demonstrate strong psychometric properties and are significantly associated with key outcomes, particularly in employment and income. Relationship management skills emerge as the most consistent predictors of economic outcomes, especially when measured behaviorally. Behavioral measures show weaker associations with social desirability bias and stronger correlations with economic outcomes, and self-reports are more predictive of mental health. In two countries, changes in behavioral socioemotional skills over time significantly predict labor market improvements—an effect not observed with self-reports—highlighting their value for program evaluation. Correlations between measurement types are modest, with variation often driven more by measurement modality than underlying skill differences. These findings suggest that behavioral measures can offer more reliable instruments for policy and intervention design in low-income settings.