ESTABLISHING ASSOCIATION BETWEEN MATERNAL EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND MOTHERING

Working mothers are twice as laden with both managing work outside the home as well as inside the home. Irrespective of their employment status they are the predominant caregivers to their children across all age groups. The present research explores the level of maternal emotional intelligence, assesses the mother-child relationship in families with preschoolers and adolescents and; also assesses the relationship between maternal emotional intelligence and her mothering. The sample of the present study comprised of 120 working mothers (60 mothers of preschoolers and 60 mothers of adolescents) selected randomly from 28 government schools of Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir. Tools used for gathering the data were a standardized Parenting Relationship Questionnaire (Kamphaus and Reynold, 2006) and Emotional Intelligence Scale (Chadha and Singh, 2003), supported by on spot observation. Results reveal that majority of the sample mothers had high emotional intelligence. Statistically significant differences were noted in the emotional intelligence of mothers with preschoolers and adolescents, with mothers of the later group having higher levels of it. Component wise most sample working mothers showed moderate emotional sensitivity and emotional maturity and higher level of emotional competency. Comparatively, working mothers of adolescents had higher emotional sensitivity and emotional competency than the mothers of preschoolers. Analysis of the mother-child relationship reveals that most mothers shared average to above average attachment, below average to average discipline practices, average involvement, average to above average parenting confidence and average to below average relation frustration with their children. There were significant differences in parenting of working mothers of preschoolers and adolescents on four dimensions namely, attachment, discipline, involvement, and relation frustration. Results also highlight that maternal emotional intelligence and its components failed to have significant correlation with various dimensions of mother-child relationship, highlighting that other factors apart from emotional intelligence may potentially influence mothering.