Multimethod Support for Using the Big Five Framework to Organize Social and Emotional Skills

Abstract

A challenge in the field of social and emotional learning is the lack of consensus regarding a framework to delineate key social and emotional skills (SE skills). Taking a conceptual approach, some have argued that the Big Five model from personality psychology offers a comprehensive framework to organize SE skills; however, little research has been done to empirically support this. In two studies—one using a factor analytic, data-driven approach, and one using an expert consensus approach—we provide multimethod evidence suggesting that there is a significant degree of overlap between SE skills and the Big Five, and we conclude that the Big Five can be used to organize SE skills.