Emotional Intelligence and Parenting Styles: An Observational Study on Adolescent Students and Their Parents in a South Indian School

Emotional intelligence has a significant influence on adolescent mental health through a variet y of coping mechanisms and the promotion of adaptation.3 Relationships between adolescents and their parents during their formative years were also critical to their emotional growth.4 Generally, family is considered the first interaction where emotional lessons are learned.5 IntroductIon BackgroundEmotional intelligence started with the concept of "social intelligence," which was first proposed in 1920, followed by the first research paper on the subject that was published in 1990.Emotional intelligence was popularized later by the best seller "Emotional Intelligence" written by Daniel Goleman.This was followed up in the subsequent years with the publication of a self-report questionnaire (1997) and the first skill measure developed in 2003. DefinitionSalovey and Mayer defined emotional intelligence as "the ability to perceive and express emotion, assimilate emotion in thought, understand and reason with emotion, and regulate emotion in the self and others". 1 Importance They explained the construct of emotional intelligence as the ability of an individual to recognize, understand, and cope with their own emotions, be aware of them, and appropriately react to others' emotions and experiences as well.