A Comparative Profile of Orthopaedically Challenged and Non-Challenged Adolescents on Emotional Intelligence

India the largest democracy and second most populous country in the world has millions of disabled people. According to Census of India, 2011 approximately 20.3% disability is due to movement, which is higher than all disabilities. The researcher decided to work on adolescents especially who have difficulty in movement. If the person is adolescent and orthopedically challenged too, then the problems related to different areas like personal, social, emotional and vocational etc. become more complex. Such pressures may result in withdrawal, complete destruction of self, mental illnesses, drug abuse or enormous hostility etc. “Emotional intelligence refers to the capacity of recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves and for managing emotion well in us and in our relationships” (Goleman, 1998).The purpose of this study is to compare the profile of orthopedically challenged and non-challenged adolescents on emotional intelligence and its various dimensions. The study was conducted on 120 orthopaedically challenged and 120 non-challenged adolescents (11-18 years) from different rural/urban area of Uttar Pradesh. Hindi version of the emotional intelligence scale for adolescents (Sharma, 2011) was used to assess emotional intelligence having five dimensions, i.e., self-awareness, managing emotions, self-motivation, empathy, handling relationship. The results shows that on the basis of profile analysis there is a average difference among orthopaedically challenged and non-challenged adolescents on emotional intelligence and its dimensions.