The effectiveness of emotional intelligence training mediated by social self-efficacy on social anxiety and perfectionism of sixth grade elementary school female students

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of emotional intelligence training mediated by social self-efficacy on social anxiety and perfectionism of sixth grade elementary school female students. This research was conducted by quasi-experimental method. The statistical population was all female students in the sixth grade of elementary school in Kashan in the 97-98 academic year. Among 120 students of one of the girls' primary schools in Kashan, which was selected by available sampling; The 20 people with the highest and the 20 people with the lowest level of social self-efficacy were selected and were finally randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. The experimental group underwent emotional intelligence training for 8 sessions. Data collection tools were questionnaires of social anxiety (Connor, 2000), perfectionism (Hill et al., 2004) and social self-efficacy (Conley, 1989). The results of multivariate analysis of covariance showed that emotional intelligence training reduces social anxiety and uncompromising perfectionism and increases adaptive perfectionism in students. Social self-efficacy also has a mediating role in this regard (P <0.05). The results of this study showed that by considering social self-efficacy, emotional intelligence training can be used as an effective intervention to improve social anxiety and perfectionism of elementary students.