All parents want when they send their child off to kindergarten is to see them succeed for years to come. But how can you ensure your child is setup to get good grades, attend an amazing college, and take on the world like a pro? It actually has less to do with the brain and more to do with the heart.
There are a million social reasons to encourage your children to develop their EQ. We already know that children with high EQ grow up to be great leaders and strong problem solvers. But what about the neuroscientific benefits of challenging and growing your EQ?
In 1990, the world was introduced to the term “emotional intelligence” (aka EI or EQ) as a new means to understand human intellect when Peter Solovey and John D. Mayer posited the significance of EQ in their article titled “Emotional Intelligence.”
Depression and anxiety are significant mental health concerns for children. According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), more than a quarter of teens (ages 13-18) suffer from anxiety disorders and almost 6 percent battle with a “severe form” of the disorder. The NIMH also reports that “in 2015, an estimated 3 million adolescents aged 12 to 17 in the United States had at least one major depressive episode in the past year.”
Emotional intelligence wasn’t always a known—or acknowledged—component of success until 1990 when psychologists John D. Mayer and Peter Salovey published their paper on what would later become a new way of defining intelligence. Not only did the paper introduce the term ‘emotional intelligence’ or EQ to the world, it also led to a new understanding of how our emotional make-up impacts our lives.
It’s shocking, but somewhere between one in four and one in three students in the U.S. has been the target of a bully. Bullying is most prevalent in middle school and targets students who are seen as being different. Students who are bullied experience increased feelings of sadness and loneliness which can lead to depression and anxiety.
Subscribe to our weekly email to receive fresh tips about how to boost your child’s EQ life skills. It’s free, fun, and easy!
EQuip Our Kids! is a national nonprofit campaign raising awareness about EQ life skills, especially among parents and businesses. Our goal is comprehensive EQ life skills instruction in every preK -12 classroom in the US by 2030.
