The Diagnostics of Emotional Intelligence of Children Aged 5-7 Held in the "EQ.Children" Digital Program

The demand for effective tools of emotional intelligence (EI) evaluation is currently increasing. It is related to the fact that the existing methods for assessing EI have disadvantages and limits. In most cases, there is no consistency in the selection of diagnostic criteria; some methods are actually aimed at evaluating "related" parameters; survey methods do not always allow obtaining objective data; projective procedures are characterized by complexity and ambiguity in the interpretation of results; most methods do not take into account changes in the informational environment of a modern child; none of the proposed procedures allows us to evaluate the psychophysiological parameters of EI. To solve this problem, the authors have developed their own diagnostic system designed to assess the EI of children aged 5-7. The program is called «EQ.children» and is implemented in JavaScript. The program includes 4 subtests aimed at evaluating the elementary emotional praxis; the perceptual and linguistic components of EI; the semantic component of EI; and the regulatory component of EI. The program involves a quantitative assessment of the results of performing diagnostic tasks, followed by summing up and determining the level of development of each component. An integral indicator of EI development is the total score for all components. The program was tested in a pre-school educational institution. The sample included 96 children aged 5-7 years. Testing was conducted individually with each child. In the study group, the values for all subtests, as well as the integral EI indicator, showed a normal distribution and were mostly within the boundaries of the average level. The validity of the method is confirmed by the content correspondence of the characteristics obtained using the program «EQ.children», and the results of previous research on the development of EI. The criteria validity of the program was checked using expert evaluation. To do so, surveys were conducted on the degree of formation of EI indicators, experts were 96 parents and 8 teachers. The results of the program «EQ.children» and the expert survey found a significant correlation (R=0.77). Retest reliability was checked by retesting children after 20±4 days. The values of the correlation coefficient between the results of 1 and 2 sections (R=0.82) show a high degree of stability of the method to external influences. The program «EQ.children» allows you to minimize the cost of conducting an EI research, while providing a wide range of information both on individual EI indicators and on the phenomenon in general. Positive results were obtained regarding the validity and test-retest reliability of the program. In General, the results conclude that the program «EQ.children» is useful as a tool for in-depth diagnostics of EI and its particular parameters.

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