A Comparison of the Effect of Training on Life Skills and Mindfulness-based Reducing Stress upon Emotional Quotient in Schoolgirls

The present research aims to compare the effect of training on life skills and mindfulness-based reducing stress upon emotional quotient in schoolgirls. A semi-empirical method (i.e., pre-test and post-test) was devised for the research, which included a test group and a control group. 60 ninth-grade students with lower grades on the Bar-On Eq-i scale (1997) were selected by means of convenience sampling  from three girls' high schools in School District 3 in Tehran (Roshangaran, Bamdad Parsi, and Narjes) during the school year of 2019-2020 and randomly put into two test groups (each consisting of 20 students) and a control group (consisting of 20 students). The first group were given training on life skills (consisting of ten weekly sessions, each session lasting 90 to 120 minutes), while the second group were trained in mindfulness-based stress reduction (8 weekly 2-hour sessions). The control group received no training at all. All examinees filled out the Bar-On Eq-i questionnaire (1997) before and after training. Univariate and multivariate covariance analysis was used for data analysis. The results pointed out meaningful increases in average emotional intelligence scores as well as its components in the post-tests in the mindfulness-based stress reduction group compared to the life skills group and also in the life skills group compared to the control group. It can be concluded overall that mindfulness-based stress reduction training proved more effective than training on life skills when it came to improving female high school students' emotional intelligences.