Aggressive behavior and emotional intelligence in adolescence

Abstract

There are few studies examining the relationship between aggressive behavior and emotional intelligence. This study examines the relationship between trait emotional intelligence and behavioral (physical aggression and verbal aggression), cognitive (hostility) and affective/emotional (anger) components of aggressive behavior. The Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire- Adolescents Short Form (TEIQue-ASF) and the Aggression Questionnaire Short (AQ-S) were administered to a sample of 314 adolescents (52.5% boys) aged 12 to 17 years. The results indicated that adolescents with high scores on physical and verbal aggression, hostility and anger showed significantly lower scores in trait emotional intelligence than their peers with low scores on physical and verbal aggression, hostility and anger. This pattern of results was the same for the total sample and for boys and girls and age groups of 12-14 years and 15-17 years. Furthermore, in most cases, large effect sizes were found supporting the empirical relevance of these differences.