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Emotional intelligence throughout Portuguese secondary school: a longitudinal study comparing performance and self-report measures

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Abstract

This study examines the developmental trajectories of ability and trait emotional intelligence (EI) in the Portuguese secondary school. Within a three-wave longitudinal design, 395 students (M age  = 15.4; SD = .74) completed both the Emotional Skills and Competence Questionnaire (ESCQ) and the Vocabulary of Emotions Test (VET). Results revealed that EI exhibited different developmental trajectories during late adolescence according to the type of measure used, while students’ VET levels evidenced an increase during secondary school, their ESCQ levels remained stable during this period. Moreover, students’ gender, verbal indicator, and type of school (public vs. private) have no significant effect on their rate of EI change, whereas students from lower sociocultural and lower professional status backgrounds demonstrated significantly greater increases on the ESCQ and VET compared to higher status adolescents. The results are examined in the context of adolescent emotional development.

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Notes

  1. In Portugal, the secondary education level follows the basic education stage of 9 years. It applies to adolescents aged from 15 to 18 years-old, which correspond to the 3rd level of the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED). The secondary school lasts for 3 years, comprising the 10th, 11th, and 12th grades. The access to the secondary school is achieved after the successful accomplishment of the basic education. From 2009 on, with the Law n. ° 85/2009 the secondary school became universal, free, and compulsory.

  2. In the secondary school level, the scientific and humanistic courses allow students to proceed into college or superior education. Scientific and humanistic courses comprise of the following: science and technologies courses which allow students to ingress in scientific, technologies, and health areas, socioeconomics sciences courses which permit the access to economic and management areas, humanistic courses which allow the progression in humanistic and literary areas, and the visual arts courses where students can access different arts and expression areas.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a Portuguese National Science Foundation Doctoral Grant (SFRH/BD/72596/2010) awarded to Ana Costa and supervised by Luísa Faria and by CPUP (UID/PSI/00050/2013)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Ana Costa & Luísa Faria

Authors
  1. Ana Costa
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  2. Luísa Faria
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Correspondence to Ana Costa.

Additional information

Ana Costa. Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Porto/Portugal. Rua Alfredo Allen, 4200–135 Porto, Portugal. Telephone number: +351 226 079 700. Email: ana.fontescosta@gmail.com

Current themes of research

Emotional Intelligence, Social and Emotional skills.

Most relevant publications in the field of psychology

Costa, A. & Faria, L. (2013). Aprendizagem social e emocional: Reflexões sobre a teoria e a prática na escola portuguesa [Social and emotional learning: Reflections about the theory and practice in the Portuguese school]. Análise Psicológica, 4 (XXXI), 407–424.

Costa, A. & Faria, L. (2014). Avaliação da inteligência emocional: Que diálogo entre medidas de desempenho e de autorrelato? [Assessment in emotional intelligence: What dialog between ability-based and self-report measures?]. Psicologia: Teoria e Pesquisa, 30(3), 339–346.

Costa, A. & Faria, L. (2015). The impact of emotional intelligence on academic achievement: A longitudinal study in Portuguese secondary school. Learning and Individual Differences, 37, 38–47.

Costa, A., Faria, L., & Taksic, V. (2011). Vocabulary of emotions test (VET): A cross-cultural validation in Portuguese and Croatian contexts. Psychological Topics, 21(3), 413–424.

Faria, L., Pina Neves, S., Stocker, J., Costa, A., & Costa, M. (2010). Concepções pessoais de competência de alunos e eficácia colectiva de escolas: Que contributos para o sucesso no ensino secundário? [Students’ personal conceptions of competence and schools collective efficacy: What contributions to secondary school success?]. Porto: Livpsic/Legis Editora.

Luísa Faria. Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Porto/Portugal. Rua Alfredo Allen, 4200–135 Porto, Portugal. Telephone number: +351 226 079 700. Email: lfaria@fpce.up.pt

Current themes of research

Intelligence and Culture. Competence Motivation on different Life Contexts. Achievement and School Success Promotion. Social and Emotional Education. Individual and Collective Efficacy of Students, Teachers, Parents, Families and Schools

Most relevant publications in the field of psychology

Ciochină, L. & Faria, L. (2009). Individualism and collectivism: What differences between Portuguese and Romanian adolescents. The Spanish Journal of Psychology, 12(2), 555–564.

Costa, A. & Faria, L. (2015). The impact of emotional intelligence on academic achievement: A longitudinal study in Portuguese secondary school. Learning and Individual Differences, 37, 38–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2014.11.011

Faria, L., Pepi, A., & Alesi, M. (2006). Personal conceptions of intelligence: Cross-cultural comparisons between Portuguese and Italian students. Social Behavior and Personality, 34(7), 815–826.

Pina Neves, S., Faria, L., & Räty, H. (2013). Students’ individual and collective efficacy: Joining together two sets of beliefs for understanding academic achievement. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 28(2), 453–474. (DOI: 10.1007/s10212-012-0123-8).

Shulruf, B., Alesi, M., Ciochină, L., Faria, L., Hattie, J., Hong, F., Pepi, A., & Watkins, D. (2011). Measuring collectivism and individualism in the third millenium. Social Behavior and Personality, 39(2), 173–188.

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Costa, A., Faria, L. Emotional intelligence throughout Portuguese secondary school: a longitudinal study comparing performance and self-report measures. Eur J Psychol Educ 31, 419–437 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-015-0274-5

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