Enhancing Self-esteem of Children through Emotional Intelligence Intervention Approach

Page: 367-371
Shalini Joshi and Gurminder Sokhey (Department of Psychology, Punjabi University, Patiala, Punjab)

Emotional Intelligence (EI) is the ability to perceive, integrate, understand and to regulate emotions to promote personal growth. People with high emotional intelligence are sensitive to other’s needs, form good connections with others and are adept in acquiring new information and learnings which leads the way to reaching one’s full potential. Such favourable social experiences help in building self-esteem and making emotional intelligence pivotal in fostering such experiences. The present study is an ongoing Ph.D work which attempts to enhance self-esteem of school children with the help of EI intervention. The sample comprised 203 primary school children (8-10 years) and was divided into High and Low EI on the basis of the Assessment of Children’s Emotion Skills. 60 students with low EI were selected out of which 30 students received the EI intervention program and 30 comprised the Control group who received no EI intervention. Battle’s Self Esteem Inventory for children was administered to get the baseline scores on Self-esteem which were recorded before the intervention, a second recording after 2 months and and the third recording took place after 5 months. A 2 x 3 ANOVA with Mixed Design was applied and trend of the results follow the previous researches where an enhancement in EI led to an enhancement in self-esteem of school children. Findings of this study imply that it is never too early to give children the tools of EI and in doing so children learn to be assertive, make meaningful friendships, learn to appreciate one’s own worth thus paving the way for success in life.