Bullying and emotional intelligence

Bullying is abusive social interaction between peers and can include aggression, harassment, and violence. Bullying is typically repetitive and enacted by those who are in a position of power over the victim. A growing body of research illustrates a significant relationship between bullying and emotional intelligence.

Emotional intelligence (EI) is a set of abilities related to the understanding, use and management of emotion as it relates to one's self and others. Mayer et al., (2008) defines the dimensions of overall EI as: "accurately perceiving emotion, using emotions to facilitate thought, understanding emotion, and managing emotion".[1] The concept combines emotional and intellectual processes.[2] Lower emotional intelligence appears to be related to involvement in bullying, as the bully and/or the victim of bullying. EI seems to play an important role in both bullying behavior and victimization in bullying; given that EI is illustrated to be malleable, EI education could greatly improve bullying prevention and intervention initiatives.[3][4]

  1. ^ Mayer, J.D., Roberts, R.D & Barasade, S.G. (2008) Human abilities: Emotional intelligence. Annual Review of Psychology, 59, 507-536. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.psych.59.103006.093646
  2. ^ Tolegenova, A.A., Jakupov, S.M., Man Cheung Chung, Saduova, S. & Jakupov, M.S (2012) A theoretical formation of emotional intelligence and childhood trauma among adolescents. “Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences”, 69, 1891-1894. International Conference on Education and Educational Psychology (ICEEPSY 2012). DOI: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.12.142
  3. ^ Mckenna, J. & Webb, J. (2013) Emotional intelligence. British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 76(12), 560.
  4. ^ Penney, Analia Pages 34-35, What Makes Us Different. 2019.