Abstract
Background: During adolescence, although the peer group exerts a strong influence on how the individual thinks and feels and on personal social values, the family still exerts a sustaining and supporting role. This study analyzed the relationships established between family function, emotional intelligence and perceived interpersonal support in adolescence. Method: The sample was made up of 1287 high school students aged 14 to 18 (M = 15.11; SD = 0.91) in the province of Almeria (Spain). Results: The results showed moderate correlations between the intrapersonal emotional intelligence dimension and perceived availability of support (advice or orientation), and between the mood dimension of emotional intelligence and the three interpersonal support dimensions (appraisal, belonging and tangible). In addition, significant positive correlations were found between family function and the intrapersonal and mood dimensions of emotional intelligence, with medium and large effect sizes, respectively. Apart from that, the data revealed that students who could count on a more functional family referred to high empathy and acceptance by others and greater support in material or financial matters, followed by those with moderate family function. In addition, students from homes with severely dysfunctional families perceived less available support. Finally, students who said they could count on strong family function also scored higher on the intrapersonal factor of emotional intelligence. Conclusions: The implications of these findings for the development of emotional intelligence in early adolescence are discussed from the family context, considering the relationship between emotional intelligence and social support.
Highlights
Adolescence has been established as a critical period of psychosocial development.During this period, young people must progress in the formation of a stable personality, the acquisition of their own identity and learning relational and coping mechanisms necessary for adulthood
This study focused on the relationships between family function, emotional intelligence and perceived interpersonal support in adolescence
The first idea inferred from the analysis which we have just made of the comparisons between the emotional intelligence dimensions, interpersonal support and student gender is that significant differences were found in these comparisons, with higher means by girls in the interpersonal dimension of emotional intelligence, and in the rest of the dimensions of emotional intelligence in favor of boys, the effect size was small in all the comparisons
Summary
Adolescence has been established as a critical period of psychosocial development During this period, young people must progress in the formation of a stable personality, the acquisition of their own identity and learning relational and coping mechanisms necessary for adulthood. This study focused on the relationships between family function, emotional intelligence and perceived interpersonal support in adolescence. This study concentrates in particular on late adolescence (from age 14), when the most abrupt physical and cognitive changes have already taken place, but their body and mind continue developing During these years, risks and adolescent idealism combine with the need to establish their identity and construct their own world, while they begin to actively participate on all social levels [2]. This study analyzed the relationships established between family function, emotional intelligence and perceived interpersonal support in adolescence. Conclusions: The implications of these findings for the development of emotional intelligence in early adolescence are discussed from the family context, considering the relationship between emotional intelligence and social support
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