Abstract

The studies and research conducted in various research areas in recent years have given an important role to emotional intelligence as the individual’s ability to recognize, identify, become aware of, express and control one’s feelings but also to recognize and become aware of the others’ feelings. These skills and competences can be formed and developed at any age, but the earlier the involvement in social and emotional development programs is, the greater the advantages. The aim of the research is constituted by investigating the influence of the family upon the young pupil’s emotional intelligence development. We have started from the premise that a series of factors such as the parent’s emotional intelligence, the nature of the parents-children relationships, the parents’ level of studies, acceptance and control influence the children’s emotional intelligence. The research was conducted on a group of 30 pupils from the 4^th grade and their 60 parents (30 mothers and 30 fathers). The results obtained confirm the general hypothesis and the specific hypotheses, respectively:

• the children whose mothers have a high level of emotional intelligence show a higher level of emotional intelligence as compared to those whose mothers have a low level of emotional intelligence;
• the children whose mothers attended higher education have a more developed emotional intelligence as compared to those whose mothers have average studies;
• the acceptance and control of parents influence differently the children’s emotional intelligence, according to their biological gender.

The results of the empirical research have been used in the program for counseling and socio-emotional development of pupils.