The Relationship Between Education Level, Age, and Socio-emotional Intelligence in Adults: An Exploratory Analysis
The modern society has challenged social interaction that has undergone significant changes due to the social and cultural transformations they experience. Consequently, the role of socio-emotional intelligence has become paramount for individual success and the quality of life. In this context, the present study aimed to investigate how age and education level, as independent factors, might influence the development of socio-emotional intelligence skills, which are essential in everyday life. The research sample consisted of 340 participants from the Romanian counties of Dolj, Olt, Mehedinți, Vâlcea, and Gorj. We used the IPIP socio-emotional intelligence scale to measure the level of socio-emotional intelligence, while age was recorded as a quantitative variable and education level as a qualitative variable (categorized as medium and higher education).
The results indicated no significant differences in socio-emotional intelligence levels between individuals with medium and higher education (t=1.21, df=378, p=0.22, as p=0.22, p>0.05). Regarding the age factor, a positive and significant correlation was found between socio-emotional intelligence levels and the age of adults (r=0.56, p=0.02), concluding that as age increases, the level of social and emotional intelligence tends to be higher.
© The Author(s) 2024. Published by RITHA Publishing. This article is distributed under the terms of the license CC-BY 4.0., which permits any further distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited maintaining attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
Ghiță, R.C., & Sicrea, C. C. (2024). The relationship between education level, age, and socio-emotional intelligence in adults: An exploratory analysis. Journal of Contemporary Approaches in Psychology and Psychotherapy, Volume II, Issue 2, 51 – 66. https://doi.org/10.57017/jcapp.v2.i2.03
Ali, A., Ahmad, I., & Khan, A. (2019). Gender, Age and Locality Based Social Intelligence Differences of B.Ed. (Hons) Students. Global Social Sciences Review, 4(1), 145-149. http://dx.doi.org/10.31703/gssr.2019(IV-I).19
Benwik, B. (2016). The Effects of Age on Social and Emotional Intelligence and the Surprising Implications for Business Leaders, Advance your leadership, [online] Available at: www.advanceyourleadership.com/he-effects-of-age-on-social-and-emotional-intelligence-and-the-surprising-implications-for-business-leaders/
Cabello, R., Sorrel, M. A., Fernandez-Pinto, I., Extremera, N., & Fernandez-Berrocal, P. (2016). Age and gender differences in ability emotional intelligence in adults: A cross-sectional study. Developmental Psychology, 52(9), 1486-1492.https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000191
Carstensen, L. L., & Charles, T.S. (2010). Social and Emotional Aging. Annual Review of Psychology, 61, 383-409. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.093008.100448
Carstensen, L. L., Isaacowitz, D. M., & Charles, S. T. (1999). Taking time seriously: A theory of socioemotional selectivity. American Psychologist, 54(3), 165–181. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.54.3.165
Fernandez-Pinto, I., Extremera, N., Fernandez-Berrocal, P. Cabello, R., & Sorrel, M.A., (2016). Age and gender differences in ability emotional intelligence in adults: A cross-sectional study, Developmental Psychology, 52(9), 1486-1492. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000191
Goldberg, L. R. (1999). A broad-bandwidth, public domain, personality inventory measuring the lower-level facets of several five-factor models. In I. Mervielde, I. Deary, F. de Fruyt, & F. Ostendorf (Eds.), Personality psychology in Europe, 7, 7-28. Tilburg, The Netherlands: Tilburg University Press. https://ipip.ori.org/A%20broad-bandwidth%20inventory.pdf
Goleman, D. (1995). Working with Emotional Intelligence, New York: Bantam books. https://asantelim.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/daniel-goleman-emotional-intelligence.pdf
Happé, F. G. E., Winner, E., & Brownell, H. (1998). The getting of wisdom: Theory of mind in old age. Developmental Psychology, 34(2), 358–362. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.34.2.358
Iliescu, D. (2015). Romanian Translation of 2504 IPIP Items, Organized by Scales. [online] Available at: https://ipip.ori.org/Romanian2504Items.htm
Iliescu, D., Popa, M., & Dimache, R. (2015). The Romanian adaptation of the International Personality Item Pool: IPIP-Ro. Psihologia Resurselor Umane, 13(1), 83-112. In Romanian. https://www.proquest.com/docview/1843250672?sourcetype=Scholarly%20Journals
Kazmier L J. (1967). Statistical Analysis for Business and Economics. McGraw-Hill.
Lau, J. (2016). Social Intelligence and The Next Generation, London: King’s College, 1-40. https://knowledge.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/basw_64326-4_0.pdf
Mărginean, I. (2000), The design of sociological research, Iași: Polirom Publishing House, in Romanian.
Mayer, J. D., Salovey, P., & Caruso, D. (2004), The Positive Psychology of Emotional Intelligence, Handbook of positive psychology. New York: Oxford University Press, 159–171.
Salovey, P., Mayer, J. D., Caruso, D., & Yoo, S. H. (2009). The positive psychology of emotional intelligence. In S. J. Lopez & C. R. Snyder (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of positive psychology (2nd Edition, pp. 237-248). NY: Oxford University Press. [Chapter reprinted in J. C. Cassady & M.A. Eissa (Eds.) (2008), Emotional intelligence: Perspectives on Educational and Positive Psychology (185-208). NY. https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195187243.013.0022
Ministry of National Education (2018). Report on the state of pre-university education in Romania, in Romanian. https://www.edu.ro/sites/default/files/Raport%20privind%20starea%20învățământulu i%20preuniversitar%20din%20România_2017-2018_0.pdf.
Piaget, J. (1965). The Psychology of Intelligence. Bucharest: Editura Ştiinţifică, in Romanian.
Popa, M. (2008). Statistics for Psychology. Theory and SPSS Applications, 2nd revised and expanded edition, Iași: Polirom, in Romanian. ISBN: 978-973-46-1045-7
Promsri, C. (2017). The influence of social intelligence on change leadership behaviours of managers in Thai listed firms. Saudi Journal of Business and Management Studies, 2(11), 971-975. https://doi.org.10.21276/sjbms.2017.2.11.4
Psychometrica (2022). Testing the Significance of Correlations. https://www.psychometrica.de/correlation.html#confidence
Rani, M., Sumit, S., & Sangwan, S. (2018). Influences of Social Intelligence of Adolescents in Relation to Their Parental Education. International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences, 7(11), 3269-3272. https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2018.711.377
Reiter, A.M.F., Kanske, P., Eppinger, B., & Shu-Chen, L. (2017). The Aging of the Social Mind - Differential Effects on Components of Social Understanding. Scientific Reports, 7(1), 1-8, 11046. https://doi.org.10.1038/s41598-017-10669-4
Research Central (2022). Social/ Personal/ Emotional Intelligence, http://researchcentral.ro/detalii.php?id=357
Ritchie, S. J., & Tucker-Drob, E. M. (2018). How Much Does Education Improve Intelligence? A Meta-Analysis. Psychology Science, 29(8), 1358-1369. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797618774253
Rusu, S., Maricuțoiu, L. P., Macsinga, I., Vîrgă, D., & Sava, F. A. (2019). Personality assessment from the Big Five model perspective: Data on the adaptation of the IPIP-50 questionnaire on a sample of Romanian students. Psihologia Resurselor Umane, 10(1), 39–56, in Romanian. Retrieved from https://hrp-journal.com/index.php/pru/article/view/219
Salovey, P., Mayer, J. D., & Caruso, D. (2002). The positive psychology of emotional intelligence. In C. R. Snyder & S. J. Lopez (Eds.), Handbook of Positive Psychology (pp. 159–171). Oxford University Press.
Scarr, S. (1989), Protecting general intelligence: Constructs and consequences for interventions, R.L. Linn (Ed.), Intelligence: Measurement, theory, and public policy. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. https://gwern.net/doc/iq/1989-linn-intelligencemeasurementtheoryandpublicpolicy.pdf
Sreeja, P., Nalinilatha, M. (2017). A study on relationship between social intelligence and academic achievement of higher secondary students. International Journal of Research - Granthaalayah, 5(6), 476-488. https://doi.org/10.29121/granthaalayah.v5.i6.2017.2059
Tanakinci, O., & Yildirim, O. (2010). The impact of social intelligence on academic achievement of students. 8th International Scientific Conference on Modern Management of Mine Producing, Geology and Environmental Protection (SGEM), 2, 1127-1132. https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12662/2914
Thorndike, E.L. (1920). Intelligence and its uses. Harper's Magazine, 140, 227–235.
Tommasi, M., Pezzuti, L., Colom, R., Abad, F. J., Saggino, A., & Orsini, A. (2015). Increased educational level is related with higher IQ scores but lower g-variance: Evidence from the standardization of the WAIS-R for Italy. Intelligence, 50, 68–74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2015.02.005
Turi, J.A., Ghani, M.F.A., Javid, Y., & Sorooshian, S. (2018). The impact of socio-emotional intelligence on academic performance. Journal of educational administration research and review, 2(2), 87-95. https://doi.org/10.17509/earr.v2i2.22478
Jose, B., Thomas, A. (2023). Navigating the Research Landscape of Emotional and Social Intelligence Among Young Adults: A Bibliometric Perspective. Cureus, 16(4). https://doi: 10.7759/cureus.59130
Todorova, A. (2024). Examining emotional intelligence evolution with age: insights from Bulgarian digital entrepreneurs of different generations, IIMT Journal of Management, https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/iimtjm-12-2023-0075/full/html
Kurmanova, A., Shaikhymuratova, I., Aubakirova, Z., Lawrence, K. C., Baizhumanova, B., & Yermentayeva, A. (2024). Personality traits and social intelligence roles in self-regulation ability of university students. International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 29(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/02673843.2024.2372035
Yingqiao. M., Yuhan. Z., Xiqin. L., Taolin. C., Graham. J.K., Qiyong, G., Song, W. (2024). Social intelligence mediates the protective role of resting-state brain activity in the social cognition network against social anxiety, Psychoradiology, 4, https://doi.org/10.1093/psyrad/kkae009
Desmet, J. (2023). The Social and Emotional Skills New Leaders Need Most: Insights from Harvard Business Publishing, Harvard Business Publishing.https://www.harvardbusiness.org/the-social-and-emotional-skills-new-leaders-need-most-insights-from-harvard-business-publishing/
Asghar, A., Iqbal, A., & Adnan, K. (2019). Gender, Age and Locality Based Social Intelligence Differences of B.Ed. (Hons) Students, Global Social Sciences Review, IV (I), 145-149. https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Social-Intelligence-on-the-Basis-of-Age-Level_tbl2_344955484
Lee, S. J., Jeong, E. J., Choi, J. I., & Park, M. S. (2024). Social intelligence and pathological gaming: a longitudinal study of the associations among negative emotions, social intelligence, aggression, and pathological gaming in adolescents. Front Psychiatry. 15: 1353969. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1353969/full
Grainger, S. A., Crawford, J. D., Riches, J. C., Kochan, N. A., Chander, R. J., Mather, K. A., Sachdev, P. S., & Henry, J. D. (2023). Aging Is Associated with Multidirectional Changes in Social Cognition: Findings from an Adult Life-Span Sample Ranging From 18 to 101 Years, The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 78(1), 62–72. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbac110
Sparks, H. (2024). Financially successful adults had these traits in common as children, according to 50 years of research, New York Post, https://nypost.com/2024/12/22/lifestyle/successful-adults-had-these-traits-in-common-as-children-study/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
Zhang, K. (2022). The Relationship between Social Intelligence, Age, and Education Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Industrial & Mechanical Engineering and Operations Management, Dhaka, Bangladesh. https://ieomsociety.org/proceedings/2022dhaka/297.pdf?utm _source=chatgpt.com
Nuradinov, S. A., Mambetаlina, S.A., Utaliyeva T. Z., & Davletkaliyeva, S. G. (2023). The Relationship Between Social Intelligence And IQ: A Psychometric Analysis, The Open Psychology Journal, 16, https://openpsychologyjournal.com/VOLUME/16/ELOCATOR/e187435012301180/