Relationship between emotional intelligence and past involvement in co-curricular activity

Abstract

Little is known about the relationship between past involvement in co-curricular activities in secondary school and level of emotional intelligence in early adulthood. Forty participants, who were students taking an introductory psychology class, took part in this research by self-reporting their past involvement in CCA and completing the Wong Emotional Intelligence Scale (Wong, Law, & Wong, 2004) to assess their level of EI. The results suggest that, during secondary school years, participants in student associations have a significantly higher level of EI in later years than participants who took up sports as their CCA. Findings in this research are discussed in reference to the investment model of EI development (Zeidner, Matthews, Roberts, & MacCann, 2003) and the intentional change theory (Boyatzis, 2006), followed by limitations faced in this research and directions for future research.