FOSTERING EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE FOR THE PROMOTION OF PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING IN CHILDHOOD

Given the increase of mental health problems in youth, the promotion of mental well-being and the prevention of psychological maladjustment have become fundamental health priorities. Although several initiatives have been developed both to enhance and assess adjustment-related variables in the developmental ages, some weaknesses in the design, assessment and implementation of previous intervention programmes precluded a consensus on their effectiveness and successful features. To address some of these weaknesses, this dissertation aims: to identify specific variables that can play a crucial role in determining psychological well-being of school-aged children, with a specific focus on Emotional Intelligence (EI) (Study 1); to strengthen EI by implementing a brief intervention programme targeted to primary-school children (Study 2); to develop a new questionnaire for the assessment of situational coping in childhood, valuable for measuring the effects of school-based intervention programmes and, more generally, for expanding the knowledge on the mechanisms underlying youth functioning (Study 3). As regards the first two studies, results suggest that, with respect of cognitive (e.g., verbal and non-verbal intelligence) and adjustment-related variables (e.g., emotional self-efficacy and coping), EI contributes significantly to psychological well-being of children, and that a brief and non-intensive EI school-based programme is effective in increasing emotional knowledge and basic emotional skills in preadolescents. As regards Study 3, since the contingencies related to the pandemic Covid-19 precluded to collect data for the validation of the new coping questionnaire, only a detailed description of the initial steps for its development has been given. This PhD project draws attention toward some of the relevant variables involved in the promotion of psychological well-being of children, and highlights the importance of both fostering EI skills through school-based intervention programmes and implementing new measures to advance the knowledge on processes of adjustment in youth.