Self-reports, scenarios, and games: lessons from measuring socioemotional skills in three African countries: Guest post by Smita Das, Clara Delavallade, and Noël Muller Development Impact Guest Blogger October 21, 2026 This page in: English

https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/impactevaluations/self-reports--scenarios--and-games--lessons-from-measuring-socio Socioemotional skills – those we use to manage our emotions, collaborate, and strive toward goals – are central to impactful entrepreneurship programs, vocational training programs, and safe space clubs for youth and adults. Yet capturing improvements in these latent skills is hard and telling which skills drive economic empowerment and mental health is harder. Many studies rely on a few familiar concepts (self-efficacy, locus of control, grit) that reflect neither the range of socioemotional skills nor the skills the intervention teaches, often bundled into a single “noncognitive skills” index.