Pedagogue’s emotional competence as a predictor of subjective wellbeing of junior schoolchildren

Introduction. Emotional competence is one of the most important professional qualities of the educator, contributing to a positive emotional background in the learning process, since the latter plays a crucial role in the successful integration of junior schoolchildren into the educational environment and the formation of their positive attitude to school, which is especially relevant today for both teachers and learners. The purpose of the study is to identify the predictors of junior schoolchildren’s subjective wellbeing in the structure of emotional competence of primary school teachers. Materials and methods. The study involved 48 teachers and 1,409 3rd-and 4th-year learners aged 9-11 (52.7% of them – boys). The empirical data were collected using the “EmIn questionnaire” by D.V. Lucin, “Diagnostic technique of empathic abilities” by V.V. Boyko, as well as projective techniques “Fez-test” and “Ladder”. Results. The correlation analysis revealed significant links between the indicators of junior schoolchildren’s subjective wellbeing and regulatory and affective components of emotional competence. The regression analysis showed that the predictors of subjective wellbeing of junior schoolchildren are represented by such components of emotional competence as empathic penetration ability (b=0.34 at p<0.02) and control of expression (b=-0.50 at p<0.001). KEYWORDS The research results are evident of the high importance of empathic dialogical interaction between the educator and the learner towards reaching subjective wellbeing of primary-school children. Conclusion. The obtained results show the need for developing and implementing supplementary professional education programmes aimed at fostering emotional competence in primary school teachers in order to improve the psychological safety of the educational environment, where learners’ subjective wellbeing is one of the desired indicators