Do parental styles and parents’ EI influence their children’s emotional development in kindergarten school?

Abstract

Emotional intelligence has been related to several facets of personal and social success as are psychological well-being, academic performance among others. Emotions and its regulation are learned during childhood and that learning is affected by the closest context. The present study aims to study the relationship between parents’ emotional intelligence and parental styles and their children emotional intelligence in early ages. A total of 83 students, 52 parents and 62 mothers took part in this research. As measure of children emotional intelligence two instruments were used: (a) the questionnaire of Emotional Quotient designed by Bar-On and Parker (2002) to be completed by an observer (parents). This questionnaire asses the following abilities: interpersonal, intrapersonal, stress management, adaptability and general mood; and (b) Test of Perception and Assessment of Emotions (PERCERVAL, Mestre et al., 2011). Adults took two questionnaires: (a) an adaptation of Bar-On (1997) questionnaire to assess their own emotional intelligence; and (b) an adaptation of the Robinson et al (1995) questionnaire about parenting styles. This questionnaire assesses both: democratic and authoritarian styles. The obtained results point out that parents’ parental style is correlated with parents’ emotional intelligence. Parents’/ mothers’ with higher emotional intelligence tend to show a democratic parental style. In addition, a democratic style of parents’/mothers’ is correlated with a higher emotional intelligence of their children. Differences in emotional abilities were found deepening on the parental style; thus, children with authoritarian mothers tend to develop higher intrapersonal abilities.