Some data suggest a relationship between optimism and social-emotional
competence, which would indicate that optimism interventions may be helpful in improving
social-emotional competence for this population. Optimism may be necessary but not sufficient
for improvement in social-emotional competence. Future research may benefit from examining
these relationships across a longer period of time and examining how different cultural variables
may impact our understanding of the relationship between self-efficacy beliefs and socialemotional
competence.