The development of social and emotional competence at school: An integrated model Rebecca J. Collie 1 Abstract The aim of the current article is to extend prior conceptualizing by presenting a model of social and emotional competence that recognizes both the mechanisms and the manifestations of social and emotional competence. The Social and Emotional Competence School Model draws together conceptual underpinnings from the social and emotional competence literature along with theoretical grounding from self- determination theory and applies this within the schooling context. Social and emotional competence is operationalized by way of three components: basic psychological need satisfaction (of autonomy, competence, and relatedness), autonomous motivation, and behaviors. In the model, the three components form an iterative process of social and emotional competence development. Need satisfaction promotes social–emotional autonomous motivation and, in turn, socially and emotionally competent behaviors. The behaviors then promote need satisfaction in an ongoing cycle. The associations identified in the iterative process are impacted by need-support within the social environment, and the associations influence and are influenced by individual differences and human development. Keywords Social–emotional competence, self-determination theory, psychosocial development, child development, adolescent development Introduction Social–emotional competence is an important and worthy goal for child and adolescent development given its established association with positive short- and long-term outcomes (e.g., Eisenberg, Spinrad, & Knafo-Noam, 2015; Goodman, Joshi, Nasim, & Tyler, 2015). Despite the seeming simplicity of the concept itself, histori- cally, there has been little consensus for defining and conceptualiz- ing social and emotional competence. In the literature, one common approach has been to focus on the manifestations of social and emotional competence—such as identifying a list of abilities, goals, or behaviors that are deemed to be socially and emotionally com- petent (e.g., Rose-Krasnor, 1997). Manifestation approaches thus identify social and emotional competence by how it is exhibited in individuals’ lives. Although such approaches have been and con- tinue to be helpful for understanding, supporting, and predicting students’ outcomes, they do not delve into questions about why the manifestations occur or what triggers them. Several theorists have made calls for approaches that instead consider the internal mechanisms of social and emotional competence (e.g., Stump, Ratliff, Wu, & Hawley, 2009). In the current article, the combination of both approaches— mechanisms and manifestations—is proposed as an avenue to gain a more complete understanding of social and emotional compe- tence and how it develops within the schooling context. The aim of this article, therefore, is to extend conceptualizing by presenting an integrated model that recognizes both approaches to operationa- lizing social and emotional competence. The Social and Emotional Competence School Model presented in Figure 1 draws together key conceptual knowledge from the social and emotional compe- tence literature along with theoretical grounding from self- determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2017). Social and emotional competence is operationalized by way of basic psychological need satisfaction, social–emotional autonomous motivation, and socially and emotionally competent behaviors. There are three basic psy- chological needs. Perceived autonomy reflects the sense of being the origin or source of one’s behavior and that such behavior is aligned with one’s genuine desires (deCharms, 1968). Competence reflects the sense of being effective in one’s undertakings and being able to exercise personal capacities (White, 1959). Relatedness reflects the sense of being connected to important others (Baume- ister & Leary, 1995). In the Social and Emotional Competence School Model, it is proposed that basic psychological need satisfac- tion promotes social–emotional autonomous motivation, which then promotes socially and emotionally competent behaviors. In turn, socially and emotionally competent behaviors promote need satisfaction in an ongoing cycle. The associations identified in the iterative process of social and emotional competence development are impacted by need-support within the social environment, and the associations influence and are influenced by individual differ- ences and human development. In outlining the Social and Emotional Competence School Model, focus is placed upon school-aged children and adoles- cents—and on the important role of the school in supporting the development of social and emotional competence in these popula- tions. School is a salient avenue through which social and emo- tional competence is developed. Indeed, schools are recognized as playing a central role in middle childhood and adolescent develop- ment (e.g., Eccles & Roeser, 2015). School is where almost all 5- to 18-year-olds spend the bulk of their time each day, preparing for 1 School of Education, University of New South Wales, Australia Corresponding author: Rebecca J. Collie, School of Education, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia. Email: rebecca.collie@unsw.edu.au International Journal of Behavioral Development 1–12 ª The Author(s) 2019 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/0165025419851864 journals.sagepub.com/home/jbd