Emotional Intelligence and Aggressive Behaviors in Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Adolescent aggression is a global public health with long-lasting and costly emotional, social, and economic consequences, and it is of vital importance to identify those variables that can reduce these behaviors in this population. Therefore, there is a need to establish the protective factors of aggressive behavior in adolescence. While some research has demonstrated the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and various aggressive responses in adolescence, indicating that EI—or the ability to perceive, use, understand, and regulate emotions—could be considered a protective factor for the development of aggressive behavior in adolescence, the strength of this effect is not clear. The aim of the present study was to conduct a systematic review of the literature concerning the relationship between aggressive behavior and EI in adolescents and provide a reliable estimate of the relationship between both constructs through a meta-analysis. For this purpose, we searched for relevant articles in English and Spanish in Medline, PsycINFO, and Scopus, obtaining 17 selectable articles based on the search terms used in research in the adolescent population. These studies provide scientific evidence of the relationship between the level of EI assessed from the three theoretical models of EI (performance-based ability model, self-report ability model, and self-report mixed model) and various aggressive responses, showing that adolescents with higher levels of EI show less aggressive behavior. Implications for interventions and guidelines for future research are discussed.

Systematic review and meta‐analysis: The association between emotional intelligence and subjective well‐being in adolescents

“…Such information would then help to determine how best to include parents in educational or clinical interventions. Finally, these results are also congruent with previous evidence on the benefits of acquiring emotional competencies for developing personal and social well-being in adolescents (Vega et al, 2021;Weissberg et al, 2015). Therefore, based on the evidence, we recommend fostering children's social and emotional skills within educational settings from early childhood.…”

Linking Emotional Intelligence, Physical Activity and Aggression among Undergraduates

“…Considering relationships between EI and aggressive behaviours, weak negative relationships were found according to previous studies [ 42 ]. Students with high levels of GEI have lower rates of manifest aggression and its dimensions.…”

Aggressiveness in Judokas and Team Athletes: Predictive Value of Personality Traits, Emotional Intelligence and Self-Efficacy

“…What is surprising is the fact that emotional intelligence and generalized and social self-efficacy are not significant predictors, although this was expected based on previous research reporting an association between emotional intelligence and lower aggressiveness ( García-Sancho et al, 2014 ; Vega et al, 2021 ) and significant negative predictor roles of self-efficacy in aggressiveness in boxers ( Chen et al, 2019 ). Future research should focus on the moderating role of emotional intelligence in the personality-aggression relationship, as suggested by some authors ( Peláez-Fernández et al, 2014 ), since the sample size was limited in this study.…”

“…Results of some studies ( Bibi et al, 2020 ) suggest that emotional intelligence could be a protective factor against some aspects of aggression. Two systematic reviews claim that emotional intelligence and aggression are negatively related regardless of the ages, cultures, types of aggression ( García-Sancho et al, 2014 ), and theoretical models of emotional intelligence ( Vega et al, 2021 ). Both studies show that people with higher levels of emotional intelligence are less aggressive.…”