Abstract:

Foreign psychologists believe that parenting may influence children’s development of emotional intelligence. However, little research has been done in this area. In view of the reviewed literature and given the scarcity of data, we conducted an exploratory study in an as yet unexplored field. The present study aims at examining relationships between the parenting practices and adolescents’ emotional intelligence. 74 students (17-18 years, females) were surveyed to assess their perception of parenting styles and their own emotional intelligence. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients showed that adolescents’ emotional intelligence correlated with one of maternal parenting styles (positive attitude) and four of paternal parenting styles (positive attitude, directivity, autonomy, incoherence). Positive interest of parents positively correlated with adolescents’ ability for understanding their own emotions. Paternal positive interest positively correlated with adolescents’ ability for managing their own emotions and emotional intelligence. Paternal directivity positively correlated with adolescents’ ability for understanding emotions (their own and other people’s). Paternal autonomy negatively correlated with adolescents’ emotional intelligence and ability for understanding other people’s emotions. Paternalincoherence negatively correlated with adolescents’ ability for understanding and managing their own emotions.

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