The literature on the economics of education emphasises the relevance of the cognitive and non‐cognitive dimensions of educational results. However, the latter have been ignored in the empirical literature that focuses on the measurement and evaluation of outcomes in secondary education. This article analyses non‐cognitive outcomes using a survey on some 5,500 15‐year‐old pupils at grant‐aided and public schools in Spain for the 2010‐2011 academic year. Our results show that school ownership does not have a significant impact on non‐cognitive educational outcomes. However, other school‐specific characteristics do matter, for example, the student's peer group. With regard to individual and family characteristics, we found some new variables that should be considered in the case of affective education. Therefore, some traditional explanatory factors (such as socioeconomic attributes) lose significance and other variables (such as the father's age) emerge as significant explanatory factors of non‐cognitive educational results.