Adolescence Emotional Intelligence in Varying Demographics

Lockwood

Annotated Bibliography Adolescence Emotional Intelligence in Varying Demographics Brittiany Lockwood June 1, 2011

Adolescence Emotional Intelligence in Varying Demographics

Harrod, N., & Scheer, S. (2005). An exploration of adolescent emotional intelligence in relation to demographic characteristics. Adolescence, 40(159), 503-12.

The idea of emotional intelligence is based on the theory of social intelligence. Emotional intelligence is the sum of the things that makes a person be motivated, what their mood is, their ability to control impulse and the overall ability to be successful. The emotional intelligence is dealing with all things that influence emotional ability. This study is targeting how demographics affect an adolescents emotional intelligence. According to research emotional intelligence is a greater predictor of success, 80% than the intelligence quotient which makes up about 20% of the predicting factors. The study sought to reveal a correlation between age, sex, income, and parents education level and the participants emotional intelligence. The study was conducted by taking a group of students 16-19 years old from 3 different high school , 2 of which were rural and one was private in a suburb of a metropolitan area. The group of 200 students, 91 female and 109 male were then surveyed of specific demographical information. The researchers got the demographical information ( age, sex, parents income, parents education, and residence) and then gave the students an emotional intelligence assessment based on the Bar-On Emotional quotient Inventory Youth Short Version. The study was seeking to show that there would be a correlation between demographics and emotional intelligence in youth. The resulting data does support this idea. The Kendalls taub correlation test did show no real correlation between emotional intelligence and age or residence, however it did indicate that emotional intelligence levels were higher in females than male. The was also a positive correlation between the parents education and income with the

Adolescence Emotional Intelligence in Varying Demographics

emotional intelligence level of the participants. There was also a difference test used and no difference was shown for emotional intelligence and age but it did corroborate with the correlation of a higher emotional intelligence among females than males. The study did examine these relationships and found significant relationships between certain demographics and emotional intelligence. I enjoyed reading this study but would like to further explore the correlation of sex to emotional intelligence and age sampling a larger age range and a more diverse demographic. I also was interested in seeing race noted and how that affected if at all emotional intelligence. Research such as this could be used to somehow target the groups that have the lowest emotional intelligence to increase adolescent preparedness for adult life and ultimately success.