Abstract

The purposes of this study were to develop a scale for evaluation of preschool childern's emotional intelligence for utilization by teachers, and to find out developmental trends of children's emotional intelligence. Total 55 items in 5 areas were developed based on the review of literature and discussions with teachers iii kindergartens and professionals m early childhood education. The items were rated on a 5-point scale by teacher. The methods for data analysis included item means and standard deviations for content validation, Cronbach α and inter-raters reliability, factor analysis for construct validity, and F-test to age and sex differences. The date were collected from 381 childern(208 boys, and 173 girls) at the age of 3 to 6 attending three kindergartens in Kim Chun and Gu Mi Total 50 items were selected after the content validation and construct validation. Six factors emerged from the data. These were empathy, utilization of emotion, regulation of emotion, appraisal and expression of emotion, relationship between child and teacher, and relationship with peer. Cronbach α was .92 for the total scale and rated from .8S-.85 in subfactors, and inter-raters reliability was .98, and .99 for the total scale, which were considered good. The intercorrelations among the factors were .10-.73, whiche were significant at the .05 level Age difference was significant in all areas, but not significant in 'relationship between child and techer'. Sex difference was significant in three factors, which were 'empathy', 'utilization of emotion', and 'interrelation with peer' with girls higher on average than the boys.