Perfiles de inteligencia emocional en universitarios y disciplina de los padres

Abstract

Emotional Intelligence, defined as the perception, understanding and management of emotions, has been the subject of much research in recent decades and has evinced its relevance for the psychosocial adjustment of different populations. Although this construct has often been associated to other personality measures, it is important to analyze its relationship with variables of the family context at the stage of early adulthood, when parental influence decreases. Therefore, in this study we propose two objectives: first, to analyze whether emotional intelligence capacities give rise to different profiles in college students and, secondly, to determine whether these different profiles are differentially associated with parental discipline. Three hundred and eighty college students between 18 and 23 years of age participated in this study. The instruments used were the Spanish Trait Meta Mood Scale-24 (TMMS-24) (Fernández Berrocal, Extremera y Ramos, 2004) and the Rules-Demands Scale (ENE) (Fuentes, Motrico y Bersabé, 1999). The results obtained, applying k-means cluster analysis to emotional intelligence scores, evince the existence of different profiles of emotional intelligence in the university students. Learners with high levels of clarity and emotional repair appear to have a proper profile. The other two profiles are inadequate: the first one because it shows high levels of attention and low clarity and emotional repair; the second because it presents low levels in all three dimensions. In addition, analysis of variance reflected the existence of significant differences, with the right profile (high levels of clarity and emotional repair) being characterized by the use of inductive discipline and the inadequate profile, characterized by high levels of attention and low emotional clarity and repair, being associated with increased use of the rigid discipline by both mothers and fathers.