Relation between Victimization and Emotional Intelligence: Gender and Age Features

The study of victimization is relevant in view of its high prevalence in modern society and the numerous negative consequences for victims of bullying and for organizations. The purpose of this research is to study the possible relationship between victimization and emotional intelligence in Russian-speaking boys, girls, men and women. Similar studies have not previously been conducted on Russian-language samples. A total of 454 respondents took part in the study, of whom 115 were women (average age - 49.1 years), 72 men (average age - 50.4 years), 104 girls (average age - 19.1 years), and 163 boys (average age - 19.1 years). The diagnostics of victimization was carried out using the author’s method for assessing the degree of victimization of an adult individual. The Russian-language version of N. Hall’s test was used to evaluate the components of emotional intelligence (EI). The main method of statistical processing was correlation analysis. It has been found that the presence of negative connections between the components of victimization and the components of EI is common to all groups. However the connections for each of these groups are different. In particular: in girls, the aggressive behavior negatively correlates with managing one’s emotions, empathy, recognition of other people’s emotions and the general indicator of EI; in young men, the dependent behavior is negatively associated with managing one’s emotions, self-management and the general indicator of emotional intelligence; in women, the aggressive behavior negatively correlates with managing one’s emotions, self-management and the general indicator of emotional intelligence; in men, the aggressiveness is negatively associated with managing one’s emotions, self-management, recognizing the emotions of other people, and the general indicator of emotional intelligence. The comparison of the obtained results with the results of foreign studies (mainly in teenagers) shows that the nature and direction of interrelations revealed for adults, for boys and girls in general, do not differ from those established in foreign studies.