The Living SEB Project
“A continuously updated, open-access database and meta-analytic platform synthesizing research on social, emotional, and behavioral skills (SEB).”
The project
The Living SEB Project responds to a growing challenge in SEB research: the expected rapid proliferation of studies adopting the SEB framework and the BESSI measures, which risks creating fragmentation, selective reporting, and conceptual confusion. The project addresses this challenge by building a living, open-science infrastructure that continually integrates new evidence and makes it accessible to the research community.
The project includes ongoing systematic literature searches, a centralized and openly available database of coded study metadata and effect sizes, and an interactive web application that allows users to run customizable meta-analyses, extract data, and generate reproducible reports. This living approach ensures that evidence is updated regularly and that users always have access to the most current state of the field.
The resource also includes demonstration analyses, such as meta-analytic estimates of associations between SEB skill domains and academic achievement, and a meta-analytic structural equation model examining the incremental validity of SEB skills beyond personality traits. These examples illustrate how the database can support complex modeling and theory testing.
Conceptually, the project is grounded in the understanding of SEB skills as capacities—what people are capable of doing when required—distinguishing them from more stable personality traits. The skills are organized into five broad domains: Innovation, Self-Management, Social Engagement, Cooperation, and Emotional Resilience.
Aims of the project
To provide a comprehensive, up-to-date map of SEB skills research across different populations, settings, and outcomes.
To enable cumulative, transparent, and reproducible evidence synthesis through standardized meta-analytic tools and openly accessible data.
To help consolidate the SEB skills framework, reduce conceptual fragmentation, and guide future empirical and applied work based on the full available evidence.
Because the database is updated regularly, the Living SEB Project remains responsive to the ongoing flow of new studies. Users can filter research by population, design, outcomes, or instruments; run their own analyses; and export data and code for further work, preregistrations, or replications.
Collaborators and Acknowledgment
This project is supported by Gerardo Pellegrino who helps me manage the new incoming data.
Fundings
No funding was obtained for this project at the moment.
Living paper
A living paper with updated results is available on github: https://feracotommaso.github.io/living_SEB_review/paper/livingSEBpaper.html