How can teaching students socio-emotional skills – such as empathy, trust, and self-control – reduce violence, improve learning, and ultimately foster more cohesive societies?
Editor's note: This episode of VoxDevTalks is also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.
The global scope of bullying and its hidden harms
Bullying is not confined to any one country or culture. UNESCO finds that one in three students worldwide have experienced bullying in the last month. Not only does this encompass physical aggression, but also psychological harms such as exclusion and social isolation. Indeed, Alan stresses that “one of the most violent types of bullying in the world” is being deliberately left out by peers, a form of aggression that can be as damaging as physical harm.
The persistence of bullying across primary, secondary, and even tertiary education makes it a global policy concern. Its effects reverberate far beyond the playground, affecting both academic outcomes and longer-term wellbeing.
The lasting impact on learning and mental health
Victims of bullying often experience a severe decline in mental health, self-worth and social skills.
“Negative consequences are mental health decline and decline in self-worth, self-efficacy, important social emotional skills, but also… complete disengagement from educational activities.”
The school environment is a “social hub” where children spend a significant proportion of their time. If it becomes hostile, students may avoid attending, leading to absenteeism, disengagement and weaker academic performance. Economists are now paying closer attention to these effects, given the potential long-term consequences for human capital and labour market outcomes.
Poverty, inequality, and the roots of school violence
The conversation highlights the interplay between socio-economic conditions and school bullying.
“If you think about any social problem, poverty makes it worse, inequality makes it worse, and that's what we observe in lower middle-income countries.”
Schools are supposed to act as levellers, offering disadvantaged children the stimulation and skills they may lack at home.
Yet, in practice, segregation often reflects wider inequalities. Poor neighbourhoods with under-resourced schools can become “breeding grounds” for violence, exclusion, and even gang activity. This undermines the very purpose of education as a driver of social mobility.
“What you see in poor neighbourhoods, middle schools and high schools tend to mirror it.”
Why socio-emotional skills matter
At the heart of this episode is the role of socio-emotional skills in shaping behaviour and reducing bullying. These skills include empathy, impulse control, perseverance, trust, and cooperation. They are vital because, as Alan points out, “our brain needs the other individuals to develop.”
Schools are therefore not just places of academic instruction, but environments where children learn how to interact, manage emotions and build relationships. Developing empathy, for example, helps children understand others’ perspectives, reducing harmful behaviours, and fostering cooperation. Alan emphasises that “it's better for all of them if we learn to interact in a better way.”
Teaching empathy: What works at different ages
Evidence shows that many socio-emotional skills are teachable, particularly in primary school. Programmes that encourage empathy and cooperation can significantly reduce bullying. Alan describes one approach:
“If you actually really target the cognitive empathy in children, like understanding the other's motivations and emotions and putting yourself in the other person's shoes, and if you do this for a long time, and the kids can develop this, and we see this, this translates into higher trust, higher cooperation, less bullying.”
However, adolescence poses greater challenges. Teenagers are highly sensitive to issues of status and respect, and less receptive to ‘top-down’ instruction. Instead, interventions must align with adolescents’ social concerns, giving them responsibility and recognition. Cleverly designed programmes that feel like young people’s own ideas are far more effective.
Measuring interventions and overcoming challenges
Designing interventions is only one part of the puzzle. Measuring their impact is equally complex. Researchers often rely on randomised control trials (RCTs) to isolate specific skills and establish causal effects.
Collecting reliable data, especially from adolescents, remains difficult. While younger children may readily identify bullies, teenagers are reluctant to disclose such information, even under assurances of confidentiality. Researchers must therefore adopt age-sensitive methods, such as mapping peer networks indirectly. This allows them to identify isolated students and those with social influence, offering insights into how interventions spread through peer effects.
The promise and limits of peer influence
Adolescents may deny being influenced by peers, but social network analysis tells a different story. Alan notes, “we see huge peer effects in the adolescent peers, and actually in primary school as well.”
Leveraging these dynamics can turn peer influence into a force for good, helping spread pro-social behaviours and norms.
As Alan argues: “Why not use it for the positive, a message delivery, positive knowledge diffusion?” Just as gangs or drug dealers exploit peer effects, educators and policymakers can harness them to build supportive school climates.
Who delivers interventions and how to scale them
Scaling up interventions raises practical questions about delivery. In primary schools, teachers are often best placed, as they spend the most time with students. In secondary schools, however, the picture is more complex, with multiple subject teachers and fewer counsellors. In lower-income contexts, NGOs may play a vital role, provided they are guided by scientific evidence.
Cost effectiveness is a crucial consideration. Alan is candid:
“I know I can assign a therapist, a great therapist, to all children, but it's not going to be cost effective.”
Instead, policymakers must balance impact with scalability, testing different modalities to identify sustainable solutions.
The role of parents and community
While parents play a crucial role, engaging them is notoriously difficult. Alan explains,
“Parents exhibit great heterogeneity… There are some parents who are completely disengaged from the kids life and education life. They’re stricken by poverty so they have no cognitive capacity to deal with anything else.”
Nonetheless, teachers stress that without parental involvement, interventions may fall short. Alan herself is beginning new research in this area, despite acknowledging the risks of “implementation failure”.
Reframing the purpose of education
Ultimately, the conversation moves beyond academic attainment to a broader vision of education. Alan reframes it as an opportunity to shape not only human capital, but also social cohesion:
“It's not just the academic achievement and the following labour market achievement. It's also kind of engineering the society we want here.”
The potential of socio-emotional interventions, if designed and scaled effectively, is immense. They can reduce bullying, improve wellbeing and foster the kind of cooperative, empathetic citizens that societies need. As Alan concludes,
“The potential for me is very, very high. So I'm inviting all the young people to work on this and look at education from this broader perspective.”