The contribution of emotional intelligence to the social and academic success of gifted adolescents as measured by the multifactor emotional intelligence scale ‐ adolescent version

Emotional intelligence has been popularly portrayed as critical to human success and sometimes even more important than IQ (e.g., D. Goleman, 1995), yet sparse evidence exists supporting such a claim. The purpose of this study was to measure emotional intelligence, as conceptualized by J. D. Mayer and P. Salovey (1997), in order to better understand its contribution to the success of gifted adolescents. An adolescent version of the unpublished Multifactor Emotional Intelligence Scale (MEIS‐A) was used to measure emotional intelligence, while measures of interpersonal relations, social stress, and grade point average were utilized to gauge success. Thirty‐nine gifted adolescents (mean age = 16.5) participated. The results of hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that emotional intelligence did not significantly contribute to the social and academic success of these adolescents. Recommendations for future research in this area are provided, including suggestions for designing studies that could be more practical for educators and other helping professionals.