Emotional Intelligence and Achievement in School Children: A Comparison of Boys and Girls in Private and Public Schools

A significant determinant of achievement associated behaviours is said to be intelligence, and as such intelligence quotient is considered an important factor for assessment of "overall" intelligence and also in its relationship with other variables. The limitations of I.Q. were felt for quite sometime and this led to what is known as "emotional intelligence" or "emotional quotient". Among of the prominent researchers contributing to the development of understanding and using emotional intelligence distinct dimension are Goleman (1995), Mayer et al. (1998) and Baron (1997). The present paper is an attempt to probe into the two dimensions of intelligence and emotional intelligence with respect to their contributions to achievement of school children. Since emotional intelligence is presumed to develop around late teenage or early adulthood, the sample for the present exploration was children of class XII. Data was collected on a total sample of 75 which included boys and girls of both public and private schools. Simple statistical tools were used to get to the results in terms of differences and correlations. The results were instrumental in providing an insight into the role of emotional intelligence in growth and development of children with reference emotional intelligence.