A TRIAL OF COMMUNICATION SKILLS BENEFITS OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE TRAINING PROGRAM FOR FIRST GRADE SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN HAMADAN

The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and feasibility of an emotional intelligence training program on the communication performance of adolescents. The authors also examined gender differences. Based on a multistage random sampling, 83 adolescent students were selected from the first-year high school students in Hamadan, Iran. The participants were randomly assigned to two experimental and two control groups. The efficacy of the training program was measured via a pretest-posttest 2×2 factorial design by the Qeendom Test of Communication Skills. The training components of emotional intelligence were done in the experimental groups of 12 sessions, each 90 minutes once a week. Data were analyzed using covariance analysis. The result showed that the group effect (F (1&78) =0.243, P=0.624) is not statistically significant. For the groups, gender effect (F (1&78) =0.762, P = 0.385) is not statistically significant. The group and gender interaction effect (F (1&78) =5.078, P< 0.05, =0.061) is statistically significant. The analysis of the findings indicated that training components of emotional intelligence have positive effect on students' communication skills. Results indicate that training EI, as a multi-component complex element, is composed of multiple skills and effective training depends on handling all the intervening elements and establishing them in a long process so that the doctrines are internalized, applied and extended in real life situations.