engleski

Emotional intelligence as a predictor of quality of family interaction, life satisfaction and risk behavior in adolescents

Recently emotional intelligence emerges as an important factor in different area of human functioning, especially in a turbulent period as adolescence is. Emotional intelligence has many theoretical backgrounds. The aim of the study was to examine relationships between emotional intelligence and some variables that indicate quality of social adjustment in adolescent population. Eight hundred thirty four adolescents from different and representative sample of secondary schools in Zadar (Croatia) region participated in the study. Self-reported measure of emotional intelligence consists of 45 items that estimated three facets: emotional perception, expression and management. Five common types of parents&#8217 ; ; behavior represented a quality of family interactions: intimacy, neglecting, giving, punishing and demanding. Risk behaviors tendency was estimated as frequency of using alcohol, tobacco and marijuana. Results have shown that among EI subscales the emotional management was the only significant predictor of (positive) family interaction. Emotional management together with intimacy, giving and punishing (reverse) were the best predictors that account 33% of life satisfaction. In attempt to find the significant predictors of risk behavior stepwise backward regression analysis was applied. Emotional management was again among the best predictors together with two scales of family interaction: intimacy and giving. The obtained results gathered with interview data support the development of emotional literacy in school curriculum.

Emotional intelligence; quality of family interaction; life satisfaction; risk behavior

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