Inteligencia emocional y rendimiento académico en una muestra de adolescentes

Abstract

In this paper we analyze the relationship between Emotional Intelligence (EI) and academic performance, differentiating between educational subjects or domains (linguistic, social, scientific and artistic). Emotional Intelligence was conceptualize from a mixed model approach proposed by Bar-On (1997). From the educational point of view, different empirical studies have identified that a low Emotional Intelligence can produce a decrease in academic performance (Extremera & Fernández-Berrocal, 2004, Parker et al., 2004). In our study, 437 Secondary Education students took part, they were aged between 11 and 16 years (M = 13.86, SD = .99), with 46.9% boys. They attended to three Secondary Education grades, specifically: 1 of the ESO 13%; to 2º of the ESO 36.8% and 50.1% to 3º of the ESO. The instruments used were: 1) Bar-On Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire for young people (EQ-i: YV, Bar-On and Parker, 2000) that using a Likert scale of 1 to 4 Values Intrapersonal skills, Interpersonal skills, Adaptability, Stress management and General mood and 2) Academic performance grouped into four areas, depending on the characteristics of the subjects. In our study, the results indicate statistically significant and positive correlations between Emotional intelligence self-perception in 4 dimensions and academic performance in all the domains. Specifically, interpersonal skills, stress management and adaptability are the most correlated with these four areas. These results are in line with those found by different authors, who analyzed self-perceived emotional intelligence in adolescent samples (Buenrostro-Guerrero et al., 2012; Ferrando et al., 2011; Parker et al., 2004).