A Comparative Study of Gifted and Non-Gifted Children on Emotional Intelligence

The present study would focus on the objectives such as :(i)to measure and compare the emotional intelligence of the gifted and average/non-gifted children and (ii) To find out the significant differences on emotional intelligence on the basis of sex (male and female); location of the schools of the children (rural and urban). The sample of the study consisted of 1000 school children in the age group of 12-18 years (adolescent period); out of which 200 were identified as gifted children out of the larger sample and 200 were non-gifted and average children. 50% of the whole sample was males and 50% females (100 male gifted and 100 female gifted; 100 male average and 100 female average). Half of them were from rural area and half from urban area. The total sample for the final study consisted of 400 students. The tools which were used to collect the data were (i) Jalota's Intelligence Test and (ii) Ekta Emotional Intelligence Scale. The results of the study show that (i) there were differences between gifted and normal students on the different components of emotional intelligence. Gifted students were high on emotional intelligence as compared to non-gifted students (ii) Sex differences on the different components of emotional intelligence were not found and (iii) Rural-urban differences were found in some components of emotional intelligence, relationship with the negative measures of mental health.