"I couldn't control myself": Impact of an emotional intelligence program on adolescent impulsivity and the associated variables.

Impulsivity is prevalent in adolescence and is linked with a variety of risky behaviours such as delinquency, aggression, self-harm, substance use among others. This study seeks to examine the relationship between adolescence impulse control ability, aggression and anti-social behaviour. It shall also asses the effectiveness of Emotional Intelligence (EI) training on the impulse control ability of adolescents. The study is a quasi-experimental design with repeated pre-test and post-test measures and would be conducted with a selected sample of 141 adolescents from the two public juvenile delinquent homes in Lagos, Nigeria. The participants shall be between 14 and 16 years of age who got placement into the homes within the last 6 months at the commencement of study and has at least one year to spend at home from the date of study. Participants who get selected in each of the two homes would be randomly assigned to two groups, one experimental and one control groups in each home. The intervention training program shall be carried out on the experimental groups while the control groups would receive the regular tutorship program of the home at the same time. The scales for measure are: (1) “Impulsivity scale” (2) Cognitive Strategies for Resolution of Social Situations Questionnaire and (3) Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Scale and two other measures, i.e., aggressive questionnaire and anti-social scale. Descriptive analysis shall be conducted to determine the means, standard deviation. Univariate and multivariate analyses of variance would be done. Further, repeated measures ANCOVA tests would be computed to evaluate the change in the measures’ total and subscale’s scores. It is hoped that the project would provide an intervention that could be of help in building or/and increasing the emotional skills of the adolescents to interact peacefully with others. Findings would also contribute to knowledge on adolescence adjustment and seamless transition into a peaceful adulthood.