Does empathy and awareness of bullying affect the performance of Moroccan students in PISA?

Abstract

Socioemotional skills, such as empathy and bullying awareness, play a pivotal role in shaping students' personal and academic development. These skills are increasingly recognized as critical factors influencing educational outcomes, particularly in addressing challenges like bullying that can hinder learning. This study examines the impact of empathy and bullying awareness on the academic performance of Moroccan students, using data from the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). To ensure robust causal inference in high-dimensional data, the double/debiased machine learning (DML) technique is employed. The findings reveal that higher levels of empathy and awareness of bullying significantly enhance performance across reading, mathematics, and science, with the most notable improvements observed in reading. These results remain consistent across various demographic and socioeconomic groups, highlighting their robustness. The study underscores the importance of integrating socioemotional learning into educational practices to foster academic success and create supportive school environments. By contributing to the growing evidence on non-cognitive skills in education, this research offers valuable insights for educators and policymakers seeking to improve student outcomes.