The relationship between emotional intelligence and retrospective ratings of parenting attitudes

Emotional intelligence can be determined by various factors related to the functioning of the family and the parents, including the parenting attitudes they display. Prior research confirms the relationship between some parenting attitudes and children’s emotional intelligence, though it has chiefly focused on adolescents. The aim of the presented research was to determine whether a relationship between emotional intelligence and parenting attitudes retrospectively evaluated by young adults exists, while taking into consideration the parent’s and the child’s gender, as well as the family characteristics. Two hundred and fifty seven young adults, aged between 20 and 25 years old, who were students of various universities, were tested the Polish version (standardized by Jaworowska and Matczak) of the Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (INTE) by Schutte, Malouff, Hall, Haggerty, Cooper, Golden, as well as with the Retrospective Evaluation of Parenting Attitudes Questionnaire (KPR-Roc) by Plopa. The study also controlled for demographic factors. A positive relationship was found between the mothers’ attitudes of acceptance/rejection and autonomy and their daughters’ emotional intelligence and ability to utilize emotions in thinking and behavior. No relationship between the mothers’ parenting attitudes and the young women’s ability to recognize emotions was found. A weak relationship between the mothers’ attitude of acceptance and their sons’ emotional intelligence emerged. Participants from conjugal families rated their mothers’ attitudes of acceptance/rejection, demands, and lack of consistency, as well as their fathers’ attitudes of acceptance/rejection, autonomy, and lack of consistency more favorably than did participants from non-conjugal families. The relationship between parenting attitudes and children’s emotional intelligence can be determined by the type of the family of origin.