Trait Emotional Intelligence and Draw-A-Person Emotional Indicators: a First Study on 8-Year-Old Italian Children

Giacomo Mancini ()
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Giacomo Mancini: Alma Mater Studiorum (University of Bologna) Department of Education

Child Indicators Research, 2019, vol. 12, issue 5, No 7, 1629-1641

Abstract: Abstract Scholars have shown the link between trait emotional intelligence (EI) and psychological health in adults, as well as in children, together with a strong association of the construct with expression of emotions, which may be well represented by children’s drawings. This work focuses on the effects of trait EI on Koppitz’s emotional indicators in the Draw-a-Person (DAP) test, a projective drawing task that is often used in psychological assessments of children to develop hypotheses about the subject’s cognitive, developmental, and emotional functioning, as well as personality style. Given the link between a child’s graphic activity and the expression of emotions, we assume that trait EI can be a reliable predictor of emotional expression revealed by the DAP test, over and above personality traits. A self-report form to assess trait EI, a personality questionnaire, and the DAP test were administered to a sample of 82 Italian children (51.2% females; Mage = 8.11; SD = 0.35). Data from hierarchical regression analysis suggest a predictive significant effect of trait EI on emotional indicators in children’s drawings (β = .36, p

Keywords: Trait emotional intelligence; Draw-a-person test; Childhood; Emotional expression; Psychological well-being (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1007/s12187-018-9601-0

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