The development of emotional intelligence in adolescence

The aim of this study was to analyse the development of the different dimensions of emotional intelligence in adolescents over one school year and in a cross-sectional study involving 484 adolescents of both sexes from the six school years between year 1 of Spanish secondary school (age 12-13) and year 2 of the Spanish Baccalaureate (age 17-18). Participants were administered the Spanish version of the Emotional Quotient Inventory: Young Version Short (Caraballo & Villegas, 2001). Consistently with most previous research, the findings indicate that, except for the stress management dimension in the female sample group, none of the dimensions of emotional intelligence undergo substantial changes in relation to age.