The development of non-cognitive skills in adolescence

Peter Hoeschler, Simone Balestra and Uschi Backes-Gellner

Economics Letters, 2018, vol. 163, issue C, 40-45

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.

Keywords: Non-cognitive skills; Grit; Big Five personality traits; Vocational education and training (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 I26 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (27)

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Related works:
Working Paper: The Development of Non-Cognitive Skills in Adolescence (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:163:y:2018:i:c:p:40-45

DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2017.11.012

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