Academic competence in Roma versus non-Roma adolescents: The role of social skills and ethnicity

Roma adolescents in Europe continue to face systemic educational disadvantages, including school segregation, low teacher expectations, and limited academic support. Social skills, including communication, cooperation, and self-control, are essential for academic engagement and teacher perceptions of competence, yet little research has direcly tested how these skills and associated adjustment measures vary across ethnic groups using multiple informants. The present investigation compared Roma (N = 99) and ethnic Czech non-Roma (N = 498) adolescents on self-reported as well as teacher-rated social skills, academic competence, and problem behaviors. Results provided evidence that Roma adolescents were rated significantly lower by teachers on nearly all social skills subscales and measures of academic competence, and significantly higher on problem behaviors (externalizing, bullying, and ADHD), even after controlling for self-reported social skills and demographic covariates. Results from path analyses provided evidence that ethnicity maintained a unique association with academic competence, where Roma ethnicity was negatively associated, net the effects of significant and additive self-reported as well as teacher rated social skills. These findings highlight the critical role of social skills in academic competence while underscoring the potential of either biased teacher evaluations or systematic ethnic differences in student academic competence. Potential implications for responsive educational practices and teacher training to address perceived cultural mismatches are discussed.