The relationship between emotional intelligence and retrospective ratings of parenting attitudes

Introduction: 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. Method: Two hundred and fifty seven young adults, aged 20–25, students of various universities, were tested with the Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (INTE) by Schutte, Malouff, Hall, Haggerty, Cooper, Golden, and Dornheim, adapted into Polish and standardized by Jaworowska and Matczak, as well as with the Retrospective Evaluation of Parenting Attitudes Questionnaire (KPR-Roc) by Plopa. The study also controlled for de-mographic factors. Results: A positive relationship exists 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 exists. 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.