The influence of socioeconomic and cultural status on the relationship between self-concept and perceived emotional intelligence in adolescence

The socioeconomic and cultural status of the family could condition the self-concept of adolescents, as well as their beliefs about their own perceived emotional intelligence (EI). Therefore, the purpose of this study is twofold: to analyse the variability of perceived EI based on self-concept at different socioeconomic and cultural status; and examine the predictive capacity of self-concept on perceived EI, controlling the socioeconomic and cultural status of participants. Participants were 1088 students (447 men and 641 women, M-age= 14.39 years, SD= 1.68) from 11 randomly selected public, private, and charter high schools of the Basque Autonomous Region, studying Compulsory Secondary Education and Baccalaureate. The instruments used were the Dimensional Self-Concept Questionnaire-33 (AUDIM-33), the Trait Meta-Mood Scale scale (TMMS-22) and the Socioeconomic and Cultural Index (ISEC). The results show that the self-concept domains affect differently the degree of EI with which adolescent perceive themselves based on the family's socioeconomic and cultural status. Additionally, the data indicate that self-concept domains have a greater predictive capacity on emotional repair. The implications of these results are discussed.