Self-Management Skills

Self-management is a better predictor of, academic success and school grades than is IQ

Self-Management

Self-management as the ability to effectively regulate and monitor one’s emotions, feelings, thoughts, impulses, and behaviours in different situations.

How does Self-Managment Skills help?

Self-management life skills and their sub-constructs, such as self-control, can enhance individual, economic, and social returns on education investments (OECD, 2015).

Emotional Well-being

Self-management predicts both short- and long-term life outcomes including social and emotional wellbeing, mental and physical health, educational achievement, economic wealth, and criminal behaviour (Duckworth and Seligman, 2005).

Strong Academic Performance

Self-management fosters strong academic performance and is a better predictor of, for example, academic success and school grades than is IQ, and of hours students spent on homework.

Greater Educational Achievement

Students with high self-management skills consistently demonstrate greater educational achievement through better grades, higher scores on standardized tests, better school attendance, and stronger academic performance (Duckworth and Carlson, 2013).

Emotional Development

Self-management is an important skill for mental health and social and emotional development (Broderick and others, 2011).

Harmonious Family Relationship

High self-control in early childhood predicts better social functioning and a higher social status; it also relates to harmonious family relationships in adulthood.

Successful Careers

Furthermore, children with high self-control are more likely to experience successful careers and economic wealth in adulthood.

How to Assess my Skills for Self-Management?

To check your proficiency in Self-Management Skills, take our FREE test

What does the Self-Management Skills Test Assess?

1. The Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SRQ)s

Developers: Brown, J. M., Miller, W. R., and Lawendowski, L. A. (1999)

The Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SRQ): Self-regulation is the ability to develop, implement, and flexibly maintain planned behavior in order to achieve one's goals. In this model, behavioral self-regulation may falter because of failure or deficits at any of these seven steps:

  • Receiving relevant information
  • Evaluating the information and comparing it to norms
  • Triggering change
  • Searching for options
  • Formulating a plan
  • Implementing the plan
  • Assessing the plan's effectiveness
Source

Brown, J. M., Miller, W. R., and Lawendowski, L. A. (1999). “The self-regulation questionnaire,” in Innovations in Clinical Practice: A Source Book, Vol. 17, eds L. Vandecreek and T. L. Jackson (Sarasota, FL: Professional Resources Press), 281–293.

Acknowledgement

We profusely thank Daniel F. Perkins, Ph.D. Principal Scientist, Clearinghouse for Military Family Readiness/ Pennsylvania State University / 402 Marion Building / University Park, for granting permission to use Critical Thinking in Everyday Life Scale.

2. Adolescent Coping Orientation for Problem Experiences (A-COPE)

Developers: Dr. Hamilton McCubbin and Dr. Joan Patterson; University of Wisconsin-Madison

The Adolescent Coping Orientation for Problem Behaviors (A-COPE) is a 54 item self-report questionnaire used to identify coping strategies employed by adolescents. The tool was designed to record the behaviours of young people that help them manage problems and stressful situations.

Source

Patterson, Joan M., and Hamilton I. McCubbin, "Adolescent coping style and behaviors: Conceptualization and measurement," Journal of Adolescence, 10 (2), 1987, pp. 163–186.

Is it possible to learn the Self-Management Skills?

The malleability of children and youth self-management through education has been an important focus of interest for researchers and policymakers, particularly because empirical evidence for their malleability has increased during the last two decades (Cunha and Heckman, 2008).