Effects of a programme to improve emotional intelligence on psychosocial adjustment and academic performance in primary education / Efectos de un programa de mejora de la inteligencia emocional sobre el ajuste psicosocial y el rendimiento académico en educación primaria

Abstract

The present study aims to design, develop and evaluate the impact of a programme to improve the emotional intelligence (PIEI) of sixth-year primary education students’ psychosocial adjustment and academic performance. A quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest design of repeated measures with a control group is used. This study includes 123 student participants, out of which 55 students (44.72%) are assigned to the control group and 68 (55.28%) to the experimental group. The PIEI is based on the model of emotional intelligence, which consists of eight 50-minute sessions. The results confirm that the PIEI stimulates significant improvement in psychosocial adjustment and overall academic performance in the experimental groups. These results suggest that EI programmes can be effective in promoting psychosocial adjustment and improving primary students’ academic performance. The implications of these findings are discussed and recommendations for future research are made.