Kindergarten Children's Emotional Intelligence and Their Giftedness

The purpose of this study was to examine the gender differences in children's emotional intelligence or their giftedness, and to investigate the relationship between children's emotional intelligence and their giftedness. Subjects were 268 5-year-old kindergarten children who were composed of 131 male children and 137 female children. The collected data were analyzed by using t-test, Pearson's correlation, and multiple regression. The major results of this study were as follows: First, female children showed higher emotional intelligence than male children. Second, there was no signifiant difference between male children and female children in their giftedness. Third, controlling for children's IQ, utilization of emotion, appraisal and expression of self-emotion, and relationship with peers were predictable variables of children's giftedness. Among the subareas of emotional intellignece, utilization of emotion was the most important predictor in explaining children's giftedness. The results showed that there was significant relationship between children's emotional intelligence and their giftedness.