Development of Emotional Intelligence through an Intervention Program in Primary School Students

Background: This research describes the influence of emotions on primary school students in a public school in Andalusia, southern Spain. The objectives include determining self-reported emotional intelligence scores, establishing correlations between the instruments, analysing differences according to gender, and studying the influence of an intervention programme on students' self-reported emotional intelligence scores, by means of pre-test and post-test. Methods: The study design combines descriptive and correlational approaches through a quasi-experimental study. The sample consists of 149 primary education students. A socio-demographic questionnaire was used to assess self-reported Emotional Intelligence, short version in Spanish of the Emotional Education Questionnaire and subscale of the WLEIS-S (version in Spanish) instrument to assess emotional regulation. Results: The experimental group in this study showed a significant increase (pre-test vs. post-test) in emotional intelligence scores following the intervention program (p < .05, p < .01) with a large effect size (r > 0.5). Conclusions: The findings suggest that emotional education and EI among primary school students have a significant and positive influence on their emotional well-being.