Impact of social-emotional learning intervention on emotional intelligence of adolescents

Adolescents face a variety of challenges, some of which include social, emotional, cognitive, and interpersonal. In order to help them with their emotions, adolescents should be taught a variety of skills to regulate and handle emotions better. With this intent in mind, a social-emotional learning (SEL) intervention module was developed by the researchers. This module covered aspects related to self-awareness, social awareness, responsibility, empathy and decision-making. These components also form the basis for emotional intelligence (EI) which is defined as the ability to perceive, understand, and regulate emotions of oneself and others. The present study aimed to understand if there arises any difference in scores of EI post the SEL intervention. Second, the gender differences with respect to EI were also be analyzed. The EI Scale (2014) was administered to 80 students between the age group of 13–14 years, from a CBSE school in Chennai. These adolescents were selected through the convenience sampling, and the four subscales were also analyzed. The findings from the study revealed a significant difference in scores from pretest to posttest (t = −4.66, P < 0.05). With respect to gender, no significant difference was found. On the subscales, two of four subscales showed significant difference in understanding emotions (Z = −4.63, P < 0.05) and handling emotions (Z = −4.023, P < 0.05).