International Journal of Collaborative Research on Internal Medicine & Public Health

Emotional Intelligence and Scholastic Performance among Children of a High School in South India

Background: Emotional intelligence is one’s ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions. In the recent years, the EI has been linked to academic success, school dropout, or the development of emotional and behavioral problems in children and job performance among adults. Early identification of low EI would help to implement corrective actions right in the school age for their better performance.

Objectives: 1. To assess the emotional intelligence (EI) of high school children in a select English medium school in Bangalore Urban District 2. To determine the factors associated with EI and its association with scholastic performance.

Methodology: Cross sectional study was conducted among 295 students of an English Medium School in a town in Bangalore Urban District in the year 2011. Students completed self reported TMMS scale to assess EI.

Results: 164(55.6%) boys and 131(44.4%) girls in the age group 12–16 yrs, participated in the study. TMMS scale assesses three domains of EI i.e. attention, clarity and repair of the emotions. Using this, 24.7% of the students paid little attention to their emotions, 21.5% need to improve understanding and 17.6% of the students had little regulation on their emotions, which needs some intervention for improvement, while majority of the students reported right attention, clarity and regulation of their emotions. Girls scored significantly higher in all the domains of EI compared to boys. Majority of the students (41.4%) had scored ≥75% marks in the last academic year and having excellent regulation of their emotions was significantly associated with their academic performance (Chi sq=14.398, p=0.006), while attention and clarity component of EI did not have association with scholastic performance.

Conclusion: Boys showed less EI compared to girls, therefore they will have to be focused more by school teachers and health personnel in improving EI, since EI has shown significant association with scholastic performance especially regulation of one’s emotions.

Author(s): Ratnaprabha , Shanbhag D , Goud BR , Mary Anupa J , Fernandez R , DSouza Adrian M

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