The effect of emotional intelligence education on emotional intelligence of the six years old children attending pre-school classes

iii ABSTRACT The Effect of Emotional Intelligence Education on Emotional Intelligence of the Six Years Old Children Attending Pre-School Classes The aim of the current study was to research the effect of emotional intelligence education on the emotional intelligence of the children who are six years old and attending pre-school classes. The sample of the present study were six years old children who are from low and upper socio-economic levels and attending pre school classes by using random selection procedure (N=120). The experimental group consists of 40 children, the placebo control group consists of 40 children, and the control group also consists of 40 children. The emotional intelligence program used for the experimental group, placebo activities used for the placebo group. "Sullivan Emotional Intelligence Scale for Children", "Sullivan Brief Empathy Scale for Children", and "Sullivan Teacher Rating Scale of Emotional Intelligence in Children" were used for determining the children's emotional intelligence. The results of the study revealed that after the emotional intelligence education program there were significant differences on the children's emotional intelligence (p<.01). The permanence test was administered to the children who were in the group of emotional intelligence education one month later after post-test. The results showed that there was still effect of emotional intelligence education on children's emotional intelligence. The examination of the experimental, placebo control, and control groups separately in terms of the children's gender, socio-economic backgrounds, and parents' education level revealed that there were no significant differences among the children (p>.05). However, examination of all children in the study in terms of their genders, socio-economic backgrounds, and parents' education level showed that there were significant differences, in other words the children who were in the emotional intelligence education group had higher scores (p<.01). Key Words: Emotional intelligence, pre-school education, social-emotional learning, emotional development, children.