Ability emotional intelligence in parents and their offspring

Abstract

This study aimed to contribute towards understanding the extent to which the emotional intelligence (EI), measured as an ability, of biological mothers and fathers was associated with the global EI of their offspring as young adults using a performance test of ability EI: the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT). These questions were assessed using a cross-sectional sample (total N = 333), which was composed of 111 biological parents (111 mothers and 111 fathers) aged between 37 and 73 years (M = 51.26; SD = 5.91), and 111 offspring (54 men and 57 women) aged between 18 and 45 years (M = 22.56; SD = 3.26). There is an intergenerational gap between parents and offspring, with offspring having higher scores in EI than their fathers and mothers. The EI of parents was associated with that of their offspring, although the link with maternal EI was greater than the link with paternal EI, even controlling for certain demographic covariates such as the gender of the offspring. Moreover, the EI of fathers has an effect on the EI of their offspring especially when the EI of the mothers was low. These findings suggest that parental EI — particularly that of the mother — was significantly associated with the ability EI of their offspring during the lifespan.