What the Science Says About Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence (EI) is a set of skills — recognizing emotions, understanding them, managing them, and using them to reason and connect. Decades of research show that students with stronger EI: - perform better academically (Durlak et al., 2011 meta-analysis of 213 school-based SEL programs) - have fewer behavior incidents - experience less anxiety and depression - report stronger relationships with peers and adults The good news: EI is teachable. Programs that combine explicit skill instruction, safe practice environments, and adult modeling produce the strongest results — especially when families are involved. That's exactly the design principle behind every EmpowerWell Tech venture.