How does emotional intelligence develop in early childhood? a meta-analysis of two perspectives on emotional intelligence

This study aims to identify the theoretical premises and key variables affect to develop children’s emotional intelligence (EI). To this end, the Preferred Studies for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) was used for the meta-analysis. The final data set consisted of 73 cases which affect to develop children’s EI from 24 studies, and the data set was divided as Ability-EI/Trait-EI group by theoretical perspectives. The results are as follows: First, all 73 variables were found to affect the development of children’s EI in general. Second, in the Ability-EI group, the result proved that the parental emotional expression plays an important role in children’s development of EI. In the Trait-EI group, teacher’s skills and self-efficacy were crucial variables to develop children’s EI. The results above imply the need for multifaceted interpretations of children’s EI and emphasize the importance of parents and teachers in the environments to foster children’s EI.