Emotional intelligence and academic achievement: A developmental model

Abstract

One of the main motivations of this research was to help correct the lack of instruments designed specifically for the measure for Emotional Intelligence (EI) in children. EMOCINE (emotion in the cinema scenes) is a measurement instrument of EI based on two of the primary factors considered in Mayer and Saloveys'IE model: emotional perception and comprehension. The latent class analysis performed on the scores obtained in a sample of 776 children (48.5% girls and 51.5% boys), with an average age of 9.2 years (SD=1.4) supports a three-stage evolutionary model in which there are more basic elements, such as emotional perception, that precede more complex ones, such as emotional comprehension. EI shows, when evaluated through this measure, a positive relationship with Academic Performance. Additionally, girls 'scores in perception and emotional comprehension were consistently higher than boys.