The growing importance of socio-emotional skills in shaping educational, professional, and personal outcomes has drawn increasing attention from social scientists. These non-cognitive dimensions—such as emotional regulation, resilience, curiosity, and openness to innovation—have been shown to play a crucial role alongside cognitive achievements in influencing students’ trajectories. As such, it becomes essential to investigate how socio-emotional skills are distributed among students and whether disparities emerge based on gender, territorial origin, and socio-economic background.

This paper presents findings from the ENRICH project (Evaluating Non-cognitive Skills for Resilience, Innovation and Change), which aims to assess the socio-emotional competencies of first-year students in lower secondary education (typically aged 11–12) across Italy. The measurement framework draws on the theoretical and methodological model developed by the OECD in the Survey on Social and Emotional Skills (SSES), and focuses on key dimensions such as resilience, emotional control, intellectual curiosity, and innovativeness.

The study is guided by the following research questions:
1. Are there significant gender-based differences in the socio-emotional skills reported by students?
2. Are these differences consistent across all measured dimensions, or do they appear in specific competencies only?
3. To what extent do territorial, socio-economic, and cultural factors shape the magnitude and direction of disparities in these skills?

We employ a quantitative research design, relying on data collected through self-administered questionnaires. The items were adapted from the OECD SSES framework to fit the Italian context. Moreover, we link these data to those from the Italian national standardized tests made by INVALSI (National Institute for the Evaluation of the Education and Training System), allowing for a multidimensional analysis that integrates cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes with contextual and socio-economic indicators.

This contribution offers two main insights to the scientific debate. First, it empirically demonstrates how gender operates as a mechanism of differentiation even in less formal domains of education, such as social and emotional competencies. Second, it underscores the relevance of the intersection between gender, socio-economic, and cultural factors and territory in understanding the reproduction of social inequalities in contemporary Italy.

Our findings reveal noteworthy regional disparities: students from Northern Italy tend to report lower levels of socio-emotional skills compared to their peers in the Centre and South. This suggests that local environments shape but in a different way formal learning outcomes and the development of broader personal resources. Furthermore, gender patterns are already evident at this early stage of schooling. Girls tend to outperform boys in empathy and emotional regulation, while boys score higher in assertiveness and risk-taking. However, these differences should not be interpreted as innate tendencies. Rather, they appear to stem from differentiated socialization processes and culturally embedded expectations that children internalize from an early age. These dynamics may contribute to the early crystallization of gendered trajectories in education and the labour market, reinforcing social role segregation and unequal access to opportunities.

Keywords: Socio-emotional skills, Gender-based differences, Disparities in territory.