The effect of emotional intelligence on coping mechanisms of gifted adolescents

Giftedness is traditionally defined as having an intelligent Quotient higher than 130.Gifted adolescents are a group of adolescents who are intellectually above average than their age mates. Gifted adolescents experience problems of both their transitional stage as well as problem of being intellectually different from others. Stress has been defined as responses to events that disrupt our physical or psychological functioning. Effective coping is found to reduce stress. Emotionally intelligent person can cope better with life challenges. The present study is a quantitative way of exploring into the role of emotional intelligence in use of various coping strategies used by gifted adolescents. The study was conducted among 200 gifted adolescents (90 males and 110 females); age ranging from 12–16 participated in the study. Participants were selected from different schools of Kerala state using a purposive sampling technique. Participants were selected after administering advanced progressive matrix (APM) to assess their degree of giftedness. Data was collected after administering ACP Scale and EIS scale. Result of the study revealed that coping patterns of gifted adolescents differs significantly as per their levels of Emotional intelligence (high, average, low). Study also indicated that gifted adolescents use significantly higher levels of problem focused strategies than emotion focused strategies for coping. The implication of the present study is that special training programs should come up to help gifted adolescents to improve on their emotional intelligence skills and thereby helping them to use effective and positive coping strategies.