Emotional Intelligence and the Different Manifestations of Bullying in Children.

The main objective of this research was to help clarify the relationship between ability emotional intelligence (AEI) and bullying in children. Bullying is a maladaptive behaviour that generates severe adverse consequences in the school environment and is a matter of growing concern in the educational community. To investigate the relationship between AEI and bullying, we administered two tests to a sample of 329 students (52.9% girls) aged between 8 and 12 years old (Mage = 9.3; SD = 1.2). AEI was assessed using a test based on the interpretation of cinema scenes (EMOCINE). EMOCINE was designed to measure two of the primary factors considered in Mayer and Salovey's ability model: emotional perception and emotional understanding. Furthermore, we administered a measure of bullying and school violence (AVE), which provides a global index of bullying, as well as a measure of its intensity, by considering eight scales or types of victimisation (harassment, intimidation, coercion, threats, social blocking, social exclusion, manipulation and aggression). The results show that age had a statistically significant effect on measures of bullying, while gender showed an interaction with victimisation types. A reduction in bullying behaviours was observed as the age of children increased, while gender-based analyses revealed different patterns in bullying behaviours. Regarding EI, it was observed that students with high AEI scores presented the lowest levels in both global bullying indexes and the victimisation types. Consequently, AEI seems to have important implications for bullying behaviours, and therefore, interventions aimed at the evaluation, training and development of AEI might offer the educational community the possibility of preventing or redirecting bullying situations.

Social Intelligence and Psychological Distress: Subjective and Psychological Well-Being as Mediators.

The strength named "social intelligence" in the Values in Action (VIA) Classification of Character Strengths and Virtues represents emotional, personal, and social intelligences, which are considered "hot intelligences". This work contributed to the study of the mechanisms of influence of social intelligence on mental health. A multiple mediation model was proposed to quantify the direct effect of social intelligence on psychopathological symptoms, as well as its indirect effect through its impact on components of subjective and psychological well-being. This study involved 1407 university students who completed the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS), the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), the Psychological Well-Being Scales (PWBS), and the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R). Social intelligence was found to be significantly associated with life satisfaction (a = 0.33, p < 0.001), positive affect (a = 0.42, p < 0.001), and negative affect (a = -0.21, p < 0.001), transmitting significant indirect effects on psychopathological symptomatology through these components of subjective well-being. Likewise, social intelligence was positively and significantly related to psychological well-being (a-paths ranged from 0.31 to 0.43, p < 0.001), exerting significant and negative indirect effects on psychological distress through the dimension of positive relations with other people. These results could be useful in order to expand the explanatory models of the influence of social intelligence on mental health and to design interventions based on this strength for the promotion of well-being and the reduction in psychological distress.

La predicción del rendimiento académico: regresión lineal versus regresión logística / Predicting Academic Achievement: Linear Regression versus Logistic Regression

El objetivo de este estudio es evaluar la capacidad de la regresión lineal y de la regresión logística en la predicción del rendimiento y del éxito/fracaso académico, partiendo de variables, como la asistencia y la participación en clase, cuya relevancia ya ha sido sido puesta de manifiesto en anteriores trabajos de nuestro equipo (Alvarado y García Jiménez, 1997). La muestra la constituyeron 175 universitarios de primero de psicología, tomándose los datos en la asignatura de 'Métodos y Diseños de Investigación en Psicología I', del área de Metodología. Las conclusiones de este estudio son que (a) el rendimiento previo es un buen predictor del rendimiento futuro y (b) la asistencia y sobre todo la participación son variables con un peso importante en la predicción del rendimiento (AU)

The main goal of this work was to evaluate the capability of linear regression and logistic regression in predicting academic achievement and academic success. Our study pays special attention to attendance and participation, whose variables that are associated to academic achievement (Alvarado and García Jiménez, 1997). We analyzed data from 175 undergraduates enrolled on their first year of psychology course in the subject of 'Methods and Designs of Investigation in Psychology I', in the area of Methodology. The conclusions of this study are that (a) prior academic achievement is a good predictor of the future academic achievement and (b) the attendance and mainly the participation are variables with an important emphasis on the prediction of academic achievement (AU)