Emotional competence (EC)—children’s ability to experience, express, regulate and understand emotions in themselves and others (Denham, 2019) is increasingly positioned as a key resource for children’s functioning at school. Research suggests that emotionally competent children are more likely to build supportive relationships with teachers and peers, to feel accepted and included, and to experience a stronger sense of school belonging (Allen et al., 2017). School belonging, in turn, is linked to a range of academic and psychosocial outcomes (Korpershoek et al., 2020). Beyond relational benefits, EC may also support learning by enabling children to cope with stress and emotional demands in the classroom, thereby freeing cognitive resources for academic engagement and performance  (Oberle & Schonert-Reichl, 2017).

However, it remains insufficiently understood whether the link between EC and school outcomes is equally strong across all groups of children. This question is particularly relevant in majority-dominant educational contexts that are becoming increasingly ethnoculturally and linguistically diverse. Multilingual minoritized pupils often navigate multiple emotion languages and emotion cultures, which may shape the ways in which emotions are experienced, expressed, and valued (Mesquita, 2022). Importantly, the emotional norms embedded in schools are not universal; rather, they are culturally situated and may align more strongly with majority emotion norms (De Leersnyder et al., 2021). This raises the possibility that children who are socialized in different emotion cultures may experience a mismatch between home and school contexts, potentially affecting how their emotional functioning translates into school belonging and achievement.

At the same time, multilingualism may also provide emotional advantages. Prior research indicates that multilingual children, particularly those who are proficient in multiple languages, can show strengths in emotion understanding (Dekeyser et al., 2024). From this perspective, multilingualism may expand children’s emotional repertoire by offering access to multiple emotion vocabularies and emotion concepts, which could facilitate nuanced emotional processing in school contexts. Yet multilingual pupils are not a homogeneous group. The complementarity principle highlights that multilingual children’s proficiency differs across languages depending on exposure, use, and communicative needs (Grosjean, 2010). This is especially relevant for emotional language proficiency: children may know emotion words and express emotions more easily in one language than another, and may differ in their ability to navigate culturally shaped emotion meanings (Dewaele, 2016).

Building on these insights, this study investigates how multiple dimensions of emotional functioning relate to school outcomes and whether these associations differ across children’s language profiles. We focus on three EC dimensions—emotion understanding, emotion expression, and emotion regulation—because these components may be differentially relevant for school belonging and achievement. We ask: (1) How are school belonging and math achievement related to these EC dimensions? (2) Do these associations vary across distinct language proficiency profiles? (3) Are the patterns consistent across EC dimensions?

We use survey data from the JEZ! to Emotions project, collected in 18 elementary schools across four diverse Flemish cities (Belgium). All pupils in fourth, fifth, and sixth grade (aged 9–12) were surveyed. The total sample comprises approximately N≈1610 children, of whom about 73% are multilingual. Data are collected via an online questionnaire administered during class time. Emotional functioning is operationalized through multiple dimensions aligned with established conceptualizations of EC (Denham, 2019): emotion understanding (e.g., emotion knowledge), emotion expression (e.g., not hiding emotions), and emotion regulation (e.g., task-focused and people-focused tuning of emotions; impact of others). School belonging is assessed as pupils’ perceived acceptance, inclusion, and support at school (Goodenow, 1993). Math achievement was measured via a standardized math test (Dudal & Deloof, 2004). To capture heterogeneity in multilingual pupils’ linguistic repertoires, we construct language proficiency profiles based on self-reported general language proficiency (speaking and understanding) in Dutch and the home language, complemented by emotional language proficiency (i.e., the language(s) in which children can best express specific emotions). While preliminary analyses used a two-step cluster analysis approach, the present ECER submission will employ latent class analysis to identify proficiency profiles in a model-based manner and to improve handling of classification uncertainty. Monolingual pupils will be included as a separate comparison group. Next, we test associations between EC dimensions and school outcomes using multilevel structural equation modeling (MSEM), accounting for clustering at the classroom level. To examine moderation by language proficiency profiles, we estimate interaction effects between EC dimensions and profile membership (or use multi-group MSEM depending on model fit and interpretability). Models control for key covariates, including sex and generational status.

Preliminary results suggest that emotional functioning is positively associated with school belonging for both multilingual and monolingual pupils. Specifically, indicators related to emotion understanding and aspects of emotion regulation show robust positive links with belonging, whereas some components appear less consequential. In line with this, effects are weaker or non-significant for certain regulation facets (e.g., people-focused tuning of emotions), and for some measures capturing interpersonal sensitivity (e.g., impact of others). Importantly, the strength of these associations appears to vary across multilingual subgroups. Preliminary moderation patterns indicate that the protective role of emotional competence for school belonging may be stronger for specific language profiles than for others, highlighting meaningful heterogeneity within multilingual pupils. This supports the premise that multilingualism is not a uniform condition and that both general and emotional language proficiency may shape how emotional competencies translate into school adjustment. For the ECER submission, we will replicate and refine these findings by employing latent class analysis instead of cluster analysis. In addition, we extend the outcome space beyond school belonging by including math achievement, to evaluate whether emotional functioning and language profile interactions are similarly relevant for academic performance. Overall, our findings underline that emotional competence is generally beneficial for children’s school belonging, yet its role is not identical across all children. The results emphasize the need for a nuanced understanding of emotional competence in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms, and point to emotional competence as a potential protective factor—particularly for certain groups of multilingual minoritized pupils.

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