Вы находитесь на странице: 1из 14

See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/233932194

Emotional Intelligence in School Children: A socio-demographic


study

Article · January 2006

CITATIONS READS

0 1,629

4 authors, including:

Vinod K Shanwal Gurpreet Kaur


Gautam Buddha University Defence Research and Development Organisation
12 PUBLICATIONS   22 CITATIONS    3 PUBLICATIONS   4 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Sudeep Kumar
Xavier Institute of Social Service
42 PUBLICATIONS   11 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Corporate Social Responsibility View project

Knowledge Management View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Sudeep Kumar on 26 February 2014.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.


Emotional Intelligence in School Children:
A Socio Demographic Study

Vinod K. Shanwal, *Gurpreet Kaur, S.B. Singh and Sudeep Kumar

ABSTRACT

With the advancement of twentieth century there came into existence the concept of emotional intelligence,
which is about the ability of the human beings to identify, use, understand and regulate emotions. Various
studies reveal that emotional intelligence is an important set of psychological abilities that relates to life success
(Goleman, 1995; Mayer & Salovey, 1997; Bar-On, 1997). It accounts for how people’s emotional reports vary in
their accuracy and how the mere understanding of emotions leads to better problem solving in the individuals’
emotional life. It is empathy and communication skills, as well as social and leadership skills that are central to
ones success in life. Goleman (1995) viewed that it is far better to have a high Emotional Quotient rather than
high Intelligence Quotient to become the productive and valued member of the society. He found from his
research that poor emotional competencies lead to poor marital relationships and unproductive work
relationship. Various studies have attempted to study the association of emotional intelligence with various
social and emotional attributes but studies on association of emotional intelligence with socio demographic
variables are lacking in the existing literature. Therefore the present study made an attempt in this direction.

INTRODUCTION
The validity of construct to its effective use in day-to-day life was challenged many a times. However,
popular literature supported the construct without many arguments. The scientists are divided in
terms of operational steps and psychometric properties of the construct and its relationship with
social intelligence, as envisaged by Thorndike (1920). As the term emotional intelligence was originated
by Western scholars (Mayer et al, 2004; Bar-On, 2000; Goleman, 1995; Cooper et al, 1997), so the
general tendency to conceive the construct as universal without realizing that ‘emotion’ is also a
culturally embedded construct (Sibia, Srivastava & Misra, 2003). In Indian culture respecting elders,
concerns for others, fulfilling one’s duties are culture specific ways of behaving, therefore, basics to the
notion of emotional intelligence. It is due to these reasons that individuals approach emotions
differently across cultures, subcultures, within societies or families. Regulation of emotion too is
directed inwards. Individuals attempt to change their behaviors, actions, etc., and to adapt themselves
according to the environment. Thus, the need of others takes prominence over personal, social and
environmental values.
In addition to the above, socialization practices hold very important place in the development of
ones personality. Society at large and families in particular are part of everyday life. Several studies on
culture and personality reveal that culture shapes personality of an individual. Though family
determines ones personality as a whole but it also affects ones emotional intelligence (Bajaj, 2005). The
emotional needs in the family are best taken care by the family members.

J. of Psy. Res. Vol.1 No.1 (2006) p. 1-13


Correspondence author: E-mail : gurpreet0911@yahoo.com
© MD Publications Pvt Ltd
2 Vinod K. Shanwal et al

As the concept of emotional intelligence was gaining momentum several social scientists and
scholars started looking for its relationship with other disciplines including aspects of human
behaviour. In this process, various correlates have emerged claiming to be the important factor of
emotional intelligence. Plenty of studies started floating which proved to be the predictor of the same.
In one of the studies it has been found that physical attributes of the family have an impact on the
emotional intelligence of the individual (Bajaj, 2005). An attempt was made by Shanwal (2004) to
study the association of social and emotional intelligence, academic achievement and attentive ability.
It was found that regulation of emotions has correlation with attentive ability; the others showed no
correlation with emotional intelligence. Sibia, Misra & Srivastava (2005) in their study have also
shown similar results. In another study conducted by Pant & Prakash (2004) it was found that there
exists no correlation between emotional intelligence and social skills.
From the above review of literature it appears that although there are many studies on emotional
intelligence and its various correlates, but studies on emotional intelligence with respect to socio
demographic variables like income, education and occupation of the parents, structure and locality of
the family etc. is very much lacking in the existing literature. Hence, in this study an attempt has been
made to find whether there is any association between emotional intelligence and various socio-
demographic variables.

METHODOLOGY
Sample: The study was conducted on a gender and rural/urban equated sample of 200 primary
school children of class IV, from randomly selected four schools (from both the shifts - Morning/
Evening) of Municipal Corporation of Delhi.
Sampling Technique: The Municipal Corporation zone (Shahdara south) of Delhi was purposively
selected. The schools as well as students were identified through random selection.

Tools used
• Multifactor emotional intelligence (MEIS)-Indian Version: This scale is an Indian adaptation of
Multifactor Emotional Intelligence Scale (MEIS) developed by Mayer & Salovey (1997), which
comprises of four sub-factors namely identification, assimilation (using), understanding and
regulation (managing) of emotions. This scale has 31 stimuli and 141 items with correlation
between consensus & experts is, r=0.45 p<0.01, whereas high correlation were fond between the
experts (r=0.45 p<0.01).
• Socio-demographic questionnaire: Socio-demographic variables like education, occupation and
economic status of parents, nature of job, whereas age, type of family and locality (rural/urban) of
the students etc. were recorded with the help of a structured questionnaire.
Operational steps
• Initially a written permission from the Director, Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) was
obtained. This information was circulated by the Director’s office to the District Education Officer
and Head Masters/Head Mistress of the concerned schools. It was ensured that only willing
students would be included in the study. Besides this, it was also informed that if any student
was not interested in continuing the study, he/she was permitted to discontinue.

Journal of Psychosocial Research


Emotional Intelligence in School Children 3

• 100 children (50 boys, 50 girls) were taken from 2 rural schools and 100 (50 boys and 50 girls)
children were selected from two urban schools.
• The total selected students were divided into groups, having 6 students in one group. At first
adequate rapport was established with the students taking the help of class teacher. There after
information on both instruments (Socio-demographic questionnaire & MEIS- Indian version)
was collected by administering these two instruments. Care was taken in explaining and
simplifying the items in case any difficulty was faced by the child during the process of assessment.
• Students were also allowed to take short breaks during assessment whenever necessary, except
for the period when they were required to complete expressive attention test.
Statistical analysis
• Each student’s response on adapted version of MEIS was scored according to its agreement with
the proportion of the participant’s who endorsed the same alternative. For example, if 60% of the
participant group reported that anger was somewhat present (“4” on the scale) then a participant
who chose “4” would received maximum rating i.e. 5 . Rest of the options were also rated
accordingly as 1, 2, 3 etc., based on percentage of response of the option. The score for each
component, i.e. identification, assimilation, understanding and regulation of emotions were
calculated by summating the total scores on each stimuli of that component. The summation of
each component score provided the overall emotional intelligence score.

RESULTS
Result on data collection
The data on age of the respondents shows that the mean age of the participants was 10.03 and S.D.
0.91 (range=8.5-11.5). The Mean ages for both rural and urban population were almost similar. (Refer
to table No. 1)

Table 1. Gender wise mean and standard deviation of age of students

Age Urban Rural Total

Boys(N=50) Girls(N=50) Boys(N=50) Girls(N=50)

Mean 10.05 9.98 10.12 9.99 10.03

SD 0.95 0.85 0.95 0.91 0.91

Table 2. Distribution of gender vs family size of the students

No. of family members Urban Total

Boys(N=50) Girls(N=50)

1- 4 members 4(36.36%) 7(63.64%) 11(100%)

5 – 7 members 35(52.23%) 32(47.77%) 67(100%)

8 & above 11(50%) 11(50%) 22(100%)

Journal of Psychosocial Research


4 Vinod K. Shanwal et al

Table 3. Distribution of gender vs education of father of the students

Education of Father Urban Total

Boys (N=50) Girls (N=50)

a. Illiterate 6(46.15%) 7(53.85%) 13(100%)


b. Literate 35(50.72%) 34(49.28%) 69(100%)

Table 4. Distribution of gender vs education of mother of the students

Education of Mother Urban Total

Boys (N=50) Girls (N=50)

a. Illiterate 8(42.11%) 11(57.89%) 19(100%)


b. Literate 42(51.85%) 39(48.15%) 81(100%)

Table 5. Distribution of gender vs occupation of father of the students

Occupation of Father Urban Total

Boys(N=50) Girls(N=50)
a. Unskilled 1(11.11%) 8(88.89%) 9 (100%)
b. Professional 37(57.81%) 27(42.19%) 64 (100%)
c. Business 12(44.45%) 15(55.55%) 27 (100%)

Table 6. Distribution of gender vs occupation of mother of the students

Occupation of Mother Urban Total

Boys(N=50) Girls(N=50)

a. Pvt. Job 7(30.43%)) 16(69.57%) 23(100%)


b. House wife 43(55.85%) 34(44.15%) 77(100%)

Table 7. Distribution of gender vs family income of the students

Family Income Urban Total

Boys(N=50) Girls(N=50)

a. upto 3000 23(56.09%) 18(43.91%) 41(100%)


b. > 3000 27(45.76%) 32(54.24%) 59(100%)

Table 8. Distribution of gender vs family type of the students

Family type Urban Total

Boys(N=50) Girls(N=50)

a. Nuclear 35(54.69%) 29(45.31%) 64(100%)


b. Joint 15(41.67%) 21(58.33%) 36(100%)

Journal of Psychosocial Research


Emotional Intelligence in School Children 5

Table 9. Distribution of gender vs performance of the students

Academic performance of the child Urban Total

Boys(N=50) Girls(N=50)

a. Good 26(60.46%) 17(39.54%) 43(100%)


b .Average 24(42.11%) 33(57.89%) 57(100%)

RURAL AREA

Table 10. Gender distribution of family size of the students

No. of family members Rural Total


Boys(N=50) Girls(N=50)
1- 4 members 7(87.5%) 1(12.5%) 8(100%)
5 – 7 members 34(50%) 34(50%) 68(100%)
8 & above 9(37.5%) 15(62.5%) 24(100%)

Table 11. Distribution of gender vs education of father of the students

Education of Father Rural Total

Boys(N=50) Girls(N=50)

a. Illiterate 6(50%) 6(50%) 12100%)


b. Literate 42(51.85%) 39(48.15%) 81(100%)

Table 12. Distribution of gender vs education of mother of the students

Education of Mother Rural Total

Boys(N=50) Girls(N=50)
a. Illiterate 33(50.76%) 32(49.24%) 65(100%)
b. Literate 17(48.57%) 18(51.43%) 35(100%)

Table 13. Distribution of gender vs occupation of father of the students

Occupation of Father Rural Total

Boys(N=50) Girls(N=50)

a. Unskilled 11(57.89%) 8(42.11%) 19(100%)


b. Professional 26(43.33%) 34(56.67%) 60(100%)
c. Business 13(61.91%) 8(38.09%) 21(100%

Table 14. Distribution of gender vs occupation of mother of the students

Occupation of Mother Rural Total

Boys(N=50) Girls(N=50)

a. Pvt. Job 4(44.44%) 5(55.56%) 9(100%)


b. House wife46(50.54%) 45(49.46%) 91(100%)

Journal of Psychosocial Research


6 Vinod K. Shanwal et al

Table 15. Distribution of gender vs family size of the students

Family Income Rural Total


Boys(N=50) Girls(N=50)
a. upto 3000 27(52.95%) 24(47.05%) 51(100%)
b. > 3000 22(45.83%) 26(54.17%) 48(100%)

Table 16. Distribution of gender vs family type of the students

Family type Rural Total


Boys(N=50) Girls(N=50)
a. Nuclear 33(47.15%) 37(52.85%) 70(100%)
b. Joint 17(56.67%) 13(43.33%) 30(100%)

Table 17. Distribution of gender vs performance of the students

Academic performance of the child Rural Total

Boys(N=50) Girls(N=50)

a. Good 21(38.18%) 34(61.82%) 55(100%)


b .Average 29(64.45%) 16(35.55%) 45(100%)

Data on structure of the family reveals that most of the children were from the nuclear families
(67%). Seventy per cent of the rural and 64% of the urban children had nuclear family. 68% of boys and
66% of girls have nuclear families. 94% rural and 89% urban children had more than four family
members. 92% boys and 91% girls also had the same family size. (Refer to table No. 2, 8, 10 & 16).
Further, 77.5% fathers of children in urban area included in the study were literate. Whereas, 87%
fathers of the rural children were literate. 12.5% cases were unreported (Refer table No.3 & 11).
Fifty eight percent of the mothers of the whole sample were literate. The highest proportion of the
urban mothers (81%) was literate. However, only the rural mothers (35%) were illiterate. (See table
No. 4 & 12).
As far as occupation of the parents were concerned, it was found that sixty two percent father’s of
the whole sample were working as professional, 24% as businessman and the rest were working as
unskilled workers (14%). 60% of the rural and 64% of the urban children’s fathers were professionals.
(Refer to table No.3 & 13). The mothers of 84% children were housewives. Out of this, 91% of rural and
77% of urban children’s mothers were housewives. 23% of urban children’s mothers were working.
(Refer to table No. 6 & 14).
Coming to the socio economic background, results reveal that participants, in general, came from
lower socio-economic background as 54% of the sample had family income of more than Rs. 3000 per
month. The minimum and maximum monthly income ranged from between rupees 1000 to more than
6000. Slightly more than half of the rural children (51%) had family income of only upto Rs. 3000 per
month. 59% of the urban children had family income of more than 3000 rupees per month. The socio-
economic status of the urban children was slightly better as compared to the rural children. (Refer to
table No.7 & 15).

Journal of Psychosocial Research


Table 18. Correlation between socio-demographic variables and emotional intelligence

Variable Locality Education Education Occupation Occupation Family Type No. of IE AE UE RE


of father of mother of father of mother income of family
family members

Locality

Education -0.042
of father

Education .466** .296**


of mother

Journal of Psychosocial Research


Occupation 0.06 .174* 0.09
of father

Occupation -.191** 0.052 -0.04 -0.018


of mother

Family income 0.089 .151* 0.075 0.115 -.364**

Type of family 0.064 0.127 0.059 0.059 -0.071 .189**

No. of family -0.101 0.009 -0.134* 0.059 0.034 -0.008 .433**


members

Identification of -0.066 -0.059 -0.046 -0.096 0.064 -0.023 -0.003 0.124*


emotions

Assimilation of - .234** 0.077 0.009 -.145* 0.049 -0.026 0.037 .165** 0.371**
emotions

Understanding of - .181* -0.018 -.145* 0.042 -0.013 -0.026 0.003 0.002 0.199** 0.041
emotions

Regulation of -0.049 0.024 0.039 -0.053 0.079 0.019 -0.017 0.023 0.003 -0.048 0.253**

emotion

Emotional - .224** 0.018 -0.044 -0.137* 0.07 -0.032 0.02 .169** 0.781** 0.814** 0.371** 0.148*
Intelligence
*P < .05 IE= Identification of emotion; AE=Assimilation of emotion; UE=Understanding of emotion; RE=Regulation of emotion
Emotional Intelligence in School Children

**P < .01


7
8 Vinod K. Shanwal et al

As shown in the table No. 9 and 17, fifty five percent of rural and forty three percent of urban
children were good in studies. Overall forty nine percent of the children were good in studies.
Results on education domain reveal that the education of mother correlated with understanding of
emotions (r = -0.145; P < 0.05), the negative correlation in this case indicates that score of understanding
of emotions (sub-component of emotional intelligence) on Hindi adapted version of MEIS is higher in
children who have illiterate mothers.
Father’s occupations not only correlate with their education but also with assimilation of emotions
(r = -0.145; P < 0.05) this negative correlation indicates that children whose fathers are unskilled
workers are scoring higher on assimilation of emotions.
The family income showed significant correlation with occupation of father (r = 0.151; P < 0.05),
occupation of mother (r = -0.364; P < 0.01) and type of family (r = 0.189; P < 0.01), larger the family
higher was the income.
The number of family members correlated with type of family (r = 0.433; P < 0.01). Number of family
members also correlated with assimilation of emotions (r = 0.165; P < 0.05), and overall emotional
intelligence (r = 0.169; P < 0.05).
As shown in table 1, the overall score for Emotional Intelligence of rural boys was highest amongst
the groups and the urban boys scored lowest. Rural girls scored better than the urban girls. The main
effects of sex (F = 3.98; df = 1; P<0.05), locality (F = 10.84; df =1 ; P < 0.01) and interaction between sex
and locality (F = 5.31; df = 1; P < 0.05) were significant. Figure 1 shows that there was not much
difference in the scores between rural boys and girls. However, urban girls were at greater variance
with the urban boys.

Fig.1 Interaction between gender and locality on emotional intelligence

585

580

575

570

565
Urban
560
EQ Rural
555
score
550

545

540

535
Boys Girls

DISCUSSION
The examination of socio-demographic variables of the children did not reveal much difference between
the rural and urban children except that the rural children had predominately illiterate mothers as
housewives in comparison to their urban counterparts. In this background of almost complete socio-
demographic similarity between these eco-cultural groups, we assume that the pattern of difference

Journal of Psychosocial Research


Emotional Intelligence in School Children 9

observed if any, on emotional intelligence among them, is not the result of the variation between the
socio-demographic profiles studied by us.
The group of rural boys has emerged as the highest scorer on the overall emotional intelligence
score in contrast; their urban counterparts are scoring lowest on the overall emotional intelligence.
The two ways ANOVA carried out to study the emotional intelligence of various eco-cultural groups
reveal strong and significant association of emotional intelligence with sex and locality. Girls as a
group scored higher than the boys and thus seem to be more emotionally intelligent. Rural children,
similarly have emerged more emotionally intelligent than their urban counterparts. Rural girls are
better at understanding and regulation of emotions while urban girls are better at identifying the
emotions. Rural boys, as a group, have emerged as a better assimilator of emotions, although, their
urban counterparts are exactly the opposite on all the measures of assimilation of emotion. By virtue
of their higher score on assimilation of emotions, the rural boys, as a group, are scoring highest on the
overall emotional intelligence but the difference on overall emotional intelligence among rural boys
and girls is not much. Apart from these, rural girls are better at identification, understanding and
regulation of emotions than the rural boys. Thus rural girls, as a group, emerged to be performing
consistently high on almost all the measures of emotional intelligence except assimilation component.
As one of the most important findings of the study, it appears that, living in rural milieu has a
positive effect on the emotional intelligence. The current study clearly provides evidence that micro
cultural influences have bearing on emotional intelligence.
One can attempt to understand the observable fact of higher emotional intelligence among rural
children by explaining their day to day environment on the basis of the results shown by previous
studies, establishing relationship between emotional intelligence and variables similar to the micro
environment of rural /urban children. For example, looking at the traditional nature of existence of the
rural population under study, one can assume that rural children are being brought up in the
environment of positively supportive social network of relatives, friends and elders. Such an
environment has been found to be providing greater life satisfaction, lower stress (Mayer, Gottlieb,
Hemandez, Smith & Gordis, 1988) and higher empathy (Kessler, Price, & Wortman, 1985; Thoits,
1986). Empathy has been emphasized to be in all probabilities a central characteristic of emotionally
intelligent behaviour (Salovey, Woolery & Mayer, 1999).
Thayer, Newman, & McClain (1994) reported that people who indulge in social interaction, daily
chores, hobbies, fun activities, physical exercise, shopping, reading and writing are better managers
of their emotions than people who indulge in television viewing, caffeine, food, sleep, drugs, alcohol,
sex or spend their time alone. It is amply clear from the above study that in our context the rural
children are more likely to indulge in daily chores, fun activities, physical exercise, social interactions,
reading, and writing; and less likely to indulge in T.V. viewing, abusing substances, over eating, over
sleeping or staying alone. In the case of urban population, one would remember that it belongs to the
lower socio-economic status and so is more likely to have the following micro environment for their
children, like, small houses, minimal social circle, prolonged periods of loneliness at home and in
neighborhood, high chances of non-emotional (matter of fact) conversation with most of the adults
around, little time and facilities for recreation and easy opportunities for escaping or avoiding the bad
mood states; the influence of all the above mentioned environmental factors may be the reasons for the
observed difference in emotional intelligence of rural and urban children.
The ability for assimilation of emotions is higher among rural population. The assimilation

Journal of Psychosocial Research


10 Vinod K. Shanwal et al

component of emotional intelligence appears to be influenced more by the socio-cultural environment


of the study sample. There is a significant interaction between locality and sex on the assimilation of
emotions components score. This indicates that socio-cultural milieu of rural context is an important
parameter responsible for higher score on this component among rural children as compared to urban
children and more so in rural males.
Positive association between higher assimilation of emotions among children with larger family
provides some indirect evidence of assimilation of emotion being influenced, more by socio-cultural
milieu. The availability of variety of alternative cognitive options for their emotional states, presence of
elders to facilitate emotional judgments is likely to be more in larger families. Prioritizing thinking
based on feelings, using emotions to facilitate judgment and using emotional states to facilitate problem
solving and creativity are some of the cognitive processes conceived by Mayer & Salovey (1997) as
components of a mental ability called as assimilation of emotion. One can see that rural scenario is
more likely to be conducive to develop assimilative ability for emotions because of the presence of
larger families (24% have 8 or more family members) with traditionally supportive social network.
Although 22% of urban children also have large families (eight or more members), we assume that
forces of urbanization have most definitely severed the broad, well knit, emotionally supportive network
between families, which appears to be intact as yet, in rural localities. What is emerging as important
in this case is not only the mere presence of larger number of important adults in the environment
having bearing of emotional intelligence but also the intact social network between the family units.
The interactive, dynamic, association of social values (which usually do not vary from house hold to
house hold, as might happen in the case of urban population) among adults in rural locals, appears
to be one of the reasons that might be responsible for the observed difference between the rural and
urban population on overall emotional intelligence in general and assimilation of emotions ability, in
particular.
The urban girls also score significantly higher on identification of emotion component of the
emotional intelligence in comparison to the urban boys. Our findings are in agreement with the
findings of some International studies conducted by Boucher & Carlson, 1980; Ekman, 1982; Hall,
1978; Kirouac & Dore, 1983; Wagner, MacDonald, & Manstead, 1986 who also found that women are
generally better in recognizing emotions. The data on articulation of emotional experience revealed
that women are better than their counterparts, which is comparable to the findings of the studies
conducted by Lane, Kivley, Dubois, Shamasundara & Schwartz, 1995; Lane et al., 1990; Lane et al,
1996 who also found that women can articulate their emotional experiences better than males. Further,
on various components of emotional intelligence women score more on appraisal, expression, regulation
and utilization of emotions (Schuttee, Malouff, Hall, Haggert, Cooper, Golden, & Dornheim (1998).
A biological basis of finding higher emotional intelligence in females may be attributed to the better
processing of information including emotional information in the right hemisphere of females as
compared to males and the differences in HPA (Hypophysis Pitutary Axis) functioning. Facial
expressions recognition, appraisal of complex emotional contexts, fantasizing, and ability to think in
emotions are all functions predominantly processed by the right hemisphere of the brain. A look at
various studies finding females at the better end of some component of emotional intelligence indicates
that apart from being superior in the overall emotionally intelligent behaviour the females are showing
expertise in various sub components of emotional intelligence defined variously by these authors.
Comparing the results of the these studies with the findings of our study reveals that better recognition

Journal of Psychosocial Research


Emotional Intelligence in School Children 11

and expression or articulation of emotions found better in these previous studies in females is reflecting
in our study in the form of higher score on identification of emotions component of emotional
intelligence, which taps the skills required for recognition of emotions in self and others. The findings
of better utilization and appraisal of emotions by females in previous studies is also proved by the
results of our study where, females are better on understanding the emotions component of the
emotional intelligence. The exact reasons for the overall better scores and the specific inclinations
shown by females on the overall emotional intelligence and its components including identification
and understanding of emotions are yet to be explored fully to make any definitive conclusions regarding
association of sex with specific component of emotionally intelligent behaviour.
Salovey et al. (1995; 2001) found that people who could discriminate clearly among their emotions
were less responsive to laboratory stressors. This lower response to stressors was assessed by measuring
the salivary cortisol secretions. Cortisol is a Hormone which is released in higher amounts in most of
the living animals during the times of any fear, fight or stress. It would be interesting to study the
interaction of above-mentioned environmental as well as socio demographic variables and biological
variables on emotional intelligence of the rural and urban population. This would help provide better
directions in understanding the difference in the emotional intelligences of these eco-cultural groups.

CONCLUSION
The overall emotional intelligence assessed reveals that emotional intelligence and its components
correlate significantly with few of the eco-cultural factor assessed in this study. Rural domicile and
large family size are the factors influencing the degree of emotional intelligence in the study population.
Rural population is also better at understanding and assimilating components of emotional
intelligence. Children with fathers who are unskilled workers are better at assimilation of emotions
components whereas illiterate mothers seem to have bearing on the understanding of emotions
components of emotional intelligence.
In this study rural females have emerged as a group having significantly high emotional intelligence
as compared to the other eco-cultural groups of the sample. As a group also, the girls are scoring
significantly higher on overall emotional intelligence than boys. On studying the correlation of sex
with emotional intelligence and its components, emotional intelligence positively correlates with girls
(both rural and urban).

REFERENCES
Bajaj, G. (2005). A Study of Socialization Practices and Broad Family Attributes as Antecendent Variables in
Emotional Intelligence. Unpublished Doctorate thesis. Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar.

Bar-On, R. (1997). The Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i): Technical Manual. Toronto: Multi-Health Systems.

Bar-on, R. (2000). Emotional and social intelligence: Insight from the Emotional Quotient inventory. In R. Bar-on &
J. D. A. Parker (Eds.), The handbook of emotional intelligence (pp. 363-388). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Boucher , J.D. and Carlson, G.E. (1980) Recognition of facial expression in three cultures. Journal of Cross-
Cultural Psychology, 11,263-80.
Cooper, R., and Ayman, S. (1997). Executive EQ: Emotional Intelligence in Leadership and Organizations.
London: Orion Books.

Journal of Psychosocial Research


12 Vinod K. Shanwal et al

Ekman, P. (1982). Emotions in the human face. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional intelligence. New York Bantam.

Hall, J.A. (1978). Gender effects in encoding nonverbal cues. Psychological Bulletin, 85, 845-857.

Kessler, R.C., Price, R.H., & Wortman, C.B. (1985). Social factors in psychopathology: Stress, social support, and
coping processes. Annual Review of Psychology, 36, 531-572.

Kirouac, G., & Dore, F. (1983). Accuracy and latency of judgement of facial expression of emotion. Perceptual
and Motor Skills, 57, 683-686.

Lane, R.D., Kivley, L.S., Dubois, M.A., Shamasundara, P., & Schwartz, G.E. (1995). Levels of emotional awareness
and the degree of right hemispheric dominance in the perception of facial emotion. Neuropsychologia,
33, 525-538.

Lane, R.D., Quinlan, D.M., Schwartz, G.E., Walker, P.A., & Zeitlin, S.B. (1990). The level of emotional awareness
scale: A cognitive development measure of emotion. Journal of Personality Assessment, 55, 124-134.

Lane, R.D., Sechrest, L., Reidel, R., Weldon, V., Kaszniak, A., & Schwartz, G.E. (1996). Impaired verbal and
nonverbal emotion recognition in alexithymia. Psychosomatic Medicine, 58, 203-210.

Mayer, J. D., Salovey, P., & Caruso, D. R. (2004). Emotional Intelligence: Theory, Findings, and Implications.
Psychological Inquiry, 15(3), 197-215.
Mayer, J.D., & Salovey, P. (1997). What is Emotional intelligence? In P. Salovey & D. Sluyter (Eds.), Emotional
development and emotional intelligence: Implications for educators (pp. 3-31). New York: Basic Books.

Mayer, J.D., Gottlieb, A.N., Hernandez, M., Smith, J., & Gordis, F. (1988). Mood and mood-related communication
during advice. Unpublished manuscript, University of New Hampshire.

Pant, N., & Prakash, A. (2004). Multifactor emotional intelligence scale in India: An evaluation. Psychological
Studies, 49, 128-135.
Salovey, P., Mayer, J.D., Goldman, S., Turvey, C., & Palfai, T. (1995). Emotional attention, clarity and repair:
Emotional intelligence using the Trait Meta-Mood Scale. In J.W. Pennabaker (Ed.), Emotion, disclosure
and health (pp.125-154). Washington, DC: Americal Psychological Association.

Salovey, P., Woolery, A., & Mayer, J.D. (2001). Emotional Intelligence: Conceptualization and Measurement. In
G. Fletcher & M.S. Clark (Eds.). The Blackwell Handbook of Social Psychology (vol. 2 : Interpersonal
processes). Oxford, England: Blackwell Publishers.
Schuttee, N.S., Malouff, J.M., Hall, L.F., Haggerty, D., Cooper, J.T., Golden, C.J., & Dornheim, L. (1998).
Development and validation of a measure of emotional intelligence. Personality and Individual Differences,
25, 167-177.

Shanwal, V.K. (2004). Emotional Intelligence the Indian Scenario. Delhi: Indian Publishers Distributors.

Sibia, A., & Misra G. , Srivastava, A. K. (2005). Assessing Emotional Intelligence in the Indian Context. National
Academy of Psychology, India. Vol 50 (2 & 3), 263-271.
Sibia, A., Srivastava, A. K., & Misra G. (2003). Emotional Intelligence: Western and Indian perspectives. Indian
Psychological Abstracts and Reviews. Vol 10 (1), 3-41.
Thayer, R.E., Newman, J.R., & McClain, T.M. (1994). Self regulation of mood: Strategies for changing a bad
mood, raising energy, and reducing tension. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 910-925.

Journal of Psychosocial Research


Emotional Intelligence in School Children 13

Thoits, P. (1986). Social support as coping assistance. Journal of Consulting and Clinical psychology,
54, ....416-423.

Thorndike, E.L. (1920). Intelligence and its uses. Harper’s Magazine, 140, 227-235.

Wagner, H.L., MacDonald, C.J., & Manstead, A.S.R. (1986). Communication of individual emotions by
spontaneous facial expression. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 737-743.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Vinod K. Shanwal — Research Institute of Human Behaviour & Allied Sciences (IHBAS) Dilshad Garden, Delhi-110095
Gurpreet Kaur, Scientist Associate — Defense Institute of Psychological Research (DIPR), DRDO, Lucknow Road,
New Delhi-110054
S.B. Singh, Senior Research Fellow — Institute of Human Behaviour & Allied Sciences (IHBAS) Dilshad Garden,
Delhi-110095
Sudeep Kumar, Research Associate — Institute of Human Behaviour & Allied Sciences (IHBAS) Dilshad Garden,
Delhi-110095

Journal of Psychosocial Research

View publication stats

Вам также может понравиться