Relationship of emotional intelligence and individual character features in adolescent students

Abstract

The article reports the results of a study on the relationship between emotional intelligence and individual character features in modern adolescents. Development of modern teenagers in the conditions of digital socialization is characterized by an obvious reduction in direct communication, which cannot but affect the development of their personality. The leading type of activity in adolescence is interpersonal communication with peers and joint socially useful activities, the effectiveness of which depends on, among other important factors, emotional intelligence and character traits of adolescents. To test the assumption that the level of emotional intelligence is associated with the individual and character features of adolescent students, we conducted an empirical study in 2021. The participants were 667 students aged 13– 15 years, who underwent a mass screening examination. The empirical study was conducted using the Emotional Intelligence Inventory “EmIn” by D. V. Lyusin and the 14 Personality Factors Questionnaire (14 PF) by R. B. Cattell. Statistical data processing was performed using the STATISTICA 6 program. The results of the study showed that four out of ten adolescents in the empirical sample had a low level of interpersonal emotional intelligence, i.e., the ability to understand the emotional state of others. Every third student experienced serious difficulties in understanding their own emotional state. More than a third of the adolescents surveyed showed a low level of general emotional intelligence, i.e., they may have difficulty understanding both their own emotions and emotions of others, as well as controlling and managing emotions during interaction. Low levels were shown by more than half of the surveyed respondents (50.9%) on the factor F (caution, slowness, silence, which can manifest themselves in combination with pessimism), as well as on the factor D – 45.8% of students show restraint, calmness, constancy interests. A high level was detected in 43.2% of adolescents for factor E (dominance, democracy, tendency to self-affirmation). Adolescents from the empirical sample demonstrated such individual character features as restraint, inertia, caution, slowness, silence, and low motivation. We established that the higher the level of emotional intelligence of adolescent students, the higher their emotional stability, volitional self-control, consciousness, and perseverance. The study results revealed an inverse correlation between general emotional intelligence and such individual character features of adolescents as affectivity, dominance, frivolity, neurasthenia, and tension.