Title page
Contents
Abstract 4
1. Introduction 6
1.1. Why non-cognitive skills matter 6
1.2. Limitations of existing research on non-cognitive skills 7
1.3. Research opportunities afforded by recent large-scale surveys 7
2. Review of recent large-scale studies on non-cognitive skills 8
2.1. Data sources 8
2.2. Key findings 10
3. Discussion 22
3.1. Limitations and future research avenues 23
4. Conclusions 24
References 25
Table 1. Relationships between personality, literacy, and important life outcomes 12
Table 2. Relationships between personality, literacy, and important life outcomes (continued) 13
Table 3. Explained variance (in percent) in different life outcomes by sociodemographic variables, cognitive skills, Big Five personality domains, and Big Five facets... 16
Table 4. Grit-predicted health, income, and job satisfaction 21
Figure 1. Variance in scholastic achievement tests and school grades explained by (a) Big Five, (b) general cognitive ability and (c) the combination of Big Five and... 17
Figure 2. Differential associations of Big Five facets with various outcome variables 19