Does Emotional Intelligence play a role in psychosocial adjustment of adolescent immigrants of second generation?

Abstract

The study is aimed at exploring if individuals’ levels of EI in adolescent immigrants of second generation are related to different indicators of psychosocial adjustment, such as individual well-being, social relationships with peers, scholastic performance and motivation. To this aim, a group of 307 adolescents aged 10-18 years, 237 autochthonous (153 females, 84 males) and 70 immigrants of second generation (39 females, 31 males), attending two secondary schools in Palermo, Italy, were involved in the research. EI was measured using a recently published Italian test IE-ACCME (D’Amico, 2013) addressed to preadolescents and adolescents and aimed at measuring the four branches of emotional intelligence described in Mayer & Salovey’s model (1997) using both self-report and performance measures. Psychological well-being was measured using the scale by Ryff (PWBS; Italian version by Ruini, 2003), and Moreno’s sociogram (1980) was used in order to explore social relationships among adolescents belonging to the same school classes. Moreover, students’ teachers were requested to evaluate both scholastic performance and motivated behavior at school. Since most of the tests presented to students are based on reading complex sentences or passages in Italian language, a control measure of reading comprehension of Italian as a second language was also administered (developed by the center for foreign students of the University of Siena, Italy). We expect to find a linear relationship, in all the adolescents involved in the study, among levels of EI and many of the indicators of psychosocial adjustment considered in the study. Moreover, we expect that these relationships are stronger in immigrant of second generation and that, particularly for newly arrived immigrants, emotional intelligence may represent a key factor for adjustment to the new culture. Final results of the study will be reported.