Spiritual education program for improving the emotional intelligence of gifted children: A multi-city single-group evaluation study

ABSTRACT

Based on a single-group one-year long evaluation study with 1,625 gifted children aged from 225 schools in 15 cities, this article examines whether participation in a spiritual education program increases their emotional intelligence. Results showed that gifted children’s emotional intelligence scores were higher post–spiritual education program (SEP) participation. Specifically, the post-test scores were higher for gifted children from European cities, US, Canadian, and Australian cities, Christian children, introverted gifted children, those who had undergone two or three sessions of the program and who regularly self-practiced. Results of the hierarchical regression analysis showed that the most significant predictor of the post-test emotional intelligence scale scores of the gifted children was self-practice. The study foregrounds the need for a nuanced view of city contexts, gender, form of giftedness, and observed personality trait of gifted children, with the critical requirement of self-engagement through self-practice, in planning SEPs aimed at improving their emotional intelligence.

KEYWORDS:

• Emotional intelligence
• evaluation study
• gifted children
• spirituality

Consent and ethics statement

Informed consent was obtained from the children and a proforma was signed by their respective guardians and the school counselor. The study and experiment objectives were explained, and nil disadvantage was assured to all the participants. All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the National Association of Professional Social Work in India, confirming with the norms prescribed by the independent ethics committee of the Centre for Child Development, India, and in compliance with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. There is no registered funder to report for this submission. The author acknowledges the generous contributions of individual philanthropists based in Mumbai, Singapore city, Pretoria, and Rabat and committed to the issues of gifted children, in sponsoring gift vouchers for study participants, stipends for the investigators and nodal persons, on grounds of anonymity. There is no conflict of interest to report for this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.