Personal boundaries and socio-emotional intelligence in adolescence

Abstract

Personal boundaries and socio-emotional intelligence are psychological constructs that play an important role in the development of an adolescent. They also influence the formation of the adolescent’s ideas about himor herself. In recent years, psychologists have paid considerable attention to the study of these constructs and the factors contributing to their development in adolescence. There are ample studies that focus separately on personal boundaries and socio-emotional intelligence. However, the relationship between these two phenomena remains poorly understood, and studying such relationship may yield useful data for those working with adolescents. The article presents the results of an empirical study that focused on the specific features of personal boundaries, psychological space and socio-emotional intelligence in school students of grades 6–9. The main purpose of the study was to investigate cal surveys to study various components of the sovereignty of personal boundaries (sovereignty of the body, territory, things, etc.) and investigate emotional (empathy, expressivity, etc.) and social (social awareness and social skills) intelligence. The following hypotheses were considered: scores of personal boundaries and socio-emotional intelligence correlate positively; and there are significant differences between adolescents of different ages and between male and female adolescents in terms of personal boundaries and socio-emotional intelligence. In general, the study confirmed the hypotheses and provided detailed data on them. All the adolescents who took part in the study are characterized by higher-than-average scores of personal boundaries sovereignty, with most of the respondents falling in the range between normal sovereignty and overconfidence. We found significant differences in the scores of empathy with unhappiness and negative expressivity in students of different grades, and we also found a positive correlation of these indicators with age. Further, it was found that male adolescents are characterized by higher scores of body and territory sovereignty, and female adolescents, by higher scores of the sovereignty of values and habits and higher scores of emotional intelligence. The results of the study can be used by psychologists and teachers when interacting with adolescents. The results may also be taken into account when creating educational programs and conducting trainings, classes and lessons in order to develop social skills, empathy and personal boundaries.