BECE, Vol.9, No.1, 2021 1217 

 

 

 

 

Communicative Competence 
The Fifth Report of the Social and Emotional Compe-

tence Test of Chinese Adolescents 

Jingzhong Huang, Qian Wang, Huanchun Chen, & Xingyuan Gao 

East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, Jiangsu, China 

 

OMMUNICATIVE ability is embodied as “extroversion” in the Big 

Five Personality Test. Extroversion is an extremely important con-

cept in personality psychology and a more common personality trait. 

Typically, it includes boldness, self-confidence, liveliness, enthusiasm, opti-

mism, and being. In studying adolescents’ social and emotional abilities, the 

OECD designed a communication competence evaluation framework based 

on “extroversion” in the “Big Five Personality” model based on the physical 

and mental development characteristics of 10-year-old and 15-year-old ado-

lescents. In the OECD evaluation framework, there are three sub-dimensions 

of communicative competence: happy group, courage and vitality. This study 

is based on the evaluation data of Suzhou City in China and presents the 

evaluation results of the communicative ability dimension of the youth social 

and emotional ability survey in various ways. The data results are presented 

in the following three parts. The first part uses descriptive statistics to illus-

trate the overall score of communicative ability, the correlation coefficient of 

communicative ability and other sub-abilities, and the differences of each 

ability in age, gender, urban and rural areas, and school categories. The se-

cond part uses factors that affect the ability to communicate through multiple 

regression analysis, including background variables, student variables, teach-

er variables, school variables, family variables, and the impact of student 

happiness, courage and vitality. Finally, the third part uses multiple regres-

sion analysis of the 10-year-old and 15-year-old groups to determine the in-

fluence of happiness, courage and vitality on life outcome variables such as  

 

 

 

 
 

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C 



 

BECE, Vol.9, No.1, 2021 1218 

health and well-being. Research indicates: 

The Overall Status of Communication Skills 

From the average and standard deviation of the three sub-abilities of the stu-

dents in the 10-year-old group and the 15-year-old group in Suzhou, the 

overall score of the students in Suzhou is higher than the world average. This 

indicates the depth of the development of the social and emotional abilities 

Suzhou’s students. The high level also shows that the confidence of Suzhou 

students in themselves is higher than the international average. Moreover, 

compared with the international sample, the three sub-abilities of the Suzhou 

sample’s communicative competence have correlate more among the three 

sub-competences: music group, courage and vitality. The music group and 

vitality show a significant middle correlation. Among the 10-year-old group 

of students, the correlation coefficient is 0.55, and the correlation coefficient 

is 0.61 among the 15-year-old students. Although courage also relates to mu-

sic and vitality, the correlation coefficients are all below 0.5. There is a high 

degree of correlation between communication ability, emotion regulation, 

and collaboration ability. 

In addition, there are significant differences in the ability to communi-

cate among different ages, genders, urban and rural areas, and school types. 

The 10-year-old group and the 15-year-old group have a large gap in self-

evaluation, while the gap in parental evaluation is relatively small, indicating 

that parents’ evaluations of students in the three dimensions of happiness, 

courage and vitality tend to be more consistent, and there is a question as to 

whether parent evaluation can be considered student self-evaluation. The 

self-evaluation level of the 10-year-old students on their own happiness, 

courage and vitality is higher than that of the 15-year-old students. In the di-

mension of music group, girls in the 10-year-old group have significantly 

higher music group ability than boys. Students in the 15-year-old group show 

the opposite situation, with boys’ music group ability significantly higher 

than that of girls. Regarding the courageous dimension, girls in the 10-year-

old group are slightly more courageous than boys, and there is no obvious 

difference between boys and girls in the 15-year-old group. In terms of vitali-

ty, boys exceed girls in the 10-year-old and 15-year-old groups. The differ-

ence in performance between male and female students in the group is even 

greater at the age of 15. Whether it is the 10-year-old group or the 15-year-

old group, students in central urban schools can communicate much better 

than students in county and rural areas, but the difference between county 

and rural is insignificant. 

Influencing Factors of Communicative Ability 

Use multiple regression to analyze the factors that affect the ability of com-

munication, including background variables, student variables, teacher varia-

bles, school variables, family variables, and the impact of students’ happi-

ness, courage and vitality. 



 

BECE, Vol.9, No.1, 2021 1219 

Regarding background variables, among the 10-year-old students, fami-

ly possessions and family book collection significantly positively affect the 

three abilities of music group, courage and vitality (p < 0.01), and the posi-

tive influence coefficients of family possessions are 0.40 and 0.36, respec-

tively. 0.46, the positive influence coefficients of family collections are 0.07, 

0.06, and 0.07, respectively. Among 15-year-old students, gender, family 

possessions, family equipment and family book collection are key factors af-

fecting students’ happiness, courage and vitality (p < 0.01). Household pos-

sessions and household equipment significantly positively affect the commu-

nication ability of 15-year-old students. The positive impact coefficients of 

household possessions are 0.22, 0.21, and 0.34. The positive impact coeffi-

cients of household equipment are 0.07, 0.07, and 0.02, respectively. 

Regarding student variables, whether in the 10-year-old group or the 15-

year-old group, the sense of security, friend relationship, good habit friends, 

and outdoor activity time all significantly and positively impact courage and 

vitality (p < 0.01), while time spent on the Internet have a significant effect 

on the three items. Ability has a significant negative impact (except for the 

courage of the 10-year-old group, p = 0.11). 

  Regarding teacher variables, whether for the 10-year-old or 15-year-

old students, the teacher-student relationship has a significant impact on their 

happiness, courage and vitality (p<0.01, β is around 0.10). For the 10-year-

old students, the teacher’s teaching age has a significant positive effect on 

music group and vitality, and the frequency of the teacher’s social and emo-

tional ability training has a significant positive effect on music group and 

courage (p < 0.01). In contrast, the 15-year-old group’s music group was not 

significantly affected by the teacher’s teaching age (P=0.37), and courage 

was not significantly affected by the teacher’s academic qualifications (p = 

0.71). The music group, courage, and vitality were affected by the teacher, 

with an expected positive effect being more significant (p < 0.01, β is 0.04, 

0.09, 0.03, respectively). 

Regarding school variables, whether it is a 10-year-old group or a 15-

year-old group, the school’s sense of belonging, school cooperation atmos-

phere and extracurricular activities all have a significant impact on their 

communication ability (p < 0.01). Of these, the school’s sense of belonging 

has the highest degree of positive influence. The directional coefficient can 

reach about 0.50. In creating a school atmosphere, the younger group is more 

suitable for cooperation, while the older group can appropriately encourage 

competition. 

 Regarding family variables, for the 10-year-old group of students, un-

derstanding fathers and mothers had a significant positive impact on students’ 

happiness, courage and vitality (p < 0.01), while understanding mothers had 

positive effects on the students’ three abilities. The impact is greater (β is 

0.08, 0.04, 0.06, respectively). Punishment parents have different influences 

on students’ communicative ability. The specific manifestation is that pun-

ishment mothers positively influence the three abilities of students, while 

punishment fathers have no significant influence. For students in the 15-year-



 

BECE, Vol.9, No.1, 2021 1220 

old group, two different parenting styles and parents’ high expectations have 

a significant positive impact on students’ happiness, courage and vitality, 

while parent-child relationship problems have a significant negative impact 

(p < 0.01). 

Communication Skills and Life Results 

From the perspective of academic performance, for the 10-year-old group of 

students, happiness, courage and vitality generally have a significant positive 

effect on the performance of China, mathematics and art (except for vitality 

for art, p = 0.46), and other P values are less than 0.01. From the perspective 

of educational expectations variables, only courage significantly impacts ed-

ucational expectations (p < 0.01, β = 0.16), indicating that more courageous 

students have higher expectations of their own learning performance. For 15-

year-old students, vitality has a significant positive impact on Chinese per-

formance (p < 0.01, β = 0.14). Guogan significantly and positively impacts 

educational expectations (p < 0.01, β = 0.05). From the perspective of math-

ematics and art achievements, the influence of communication skills is insig-

nificant. From the perspective of global awareness among both 10-year-old 

and 15-year-old groups, the communicative abilities of group, courage and 

vitality all have a significant positive impact on global awareness (p < 0.01). 

From the perspective of social relations, music group and vitality have a sig-

nificant positive impact on students’ social relations in both age groups (p < 

0.01). From the health point of view, vitality and music group have a signifi-

cant positive impact on both groups, especially vitality, which has a greater 

degree of influence than music group; the correlation coefficient can reach 

0.27. From the perspective of quality of life, happiness, courage and vitality 

have a significant positive impact on the subjective well-being and life satis-

faction of the 10-year-old students, and they have a significant negative im-

pact on test anxiety (p < 0.01, β = -0.10, -0.16, -0.53, respectively). Lequn 

and vitality have a significant positive impact on the subjective well-being 

and life satisfaction of 15-year-old students, while courage and vitality have 

a significant negative impact on test anxiety (p < 0.01, β = -0.08, -0.40, re-

spectively). 

The results indicate that encouraging young people to develop good 

peer relationships plays an extremely important role in the formation and de-

velopment of their happiness, courage and vitality. Both teachers and stu-

dents must understand, trust, and respect each other, as well as form a basis 

of equal communication. A harmonious relationship between teachers and 

students is an important guarantee for promoting students’ communication 

skills. To create a positive school atmosphere, a good school atmosphere is a 

key to improving students’ communication skills. Parents should form a 

positive family education and create a democratic and harmonious family 

atmosphere to promote the development of happiness, courage and vitality. 

 

 



 

BECE, Vol.9, No.1, 2021 1221 

Source: Journal of East China Normal University (Education Science Edition), 2021, 

39(9):93-108. 

 

Correspondence to: 

Jingzhong Huang 

East China Normal University 
Shanghai 200241 

China 

Email: zjhuang@dedu.ecnu.edu.cn  
 

Conflict of Interests: None. 

Doi: 10.15354/bece.21.rp035 

 

mailto:zjhuang@dedu.ecnu.edu.cn