The Influence of Emotional Intelligence on Individual Development

Dear Colleagues,

Emotions permeate every facet of the human experience, serving as fundamental mechanisms for adaptation, communication, and motivation. The dynamic processes of expressing and regulating emotions are central to socio-emotional development, shaping individuals’ capacity to navigate social relationships, pursue academic and professional goals, and maintain psychological well-being across the lifespan. Underpinning these emotional processes is Emotional Intelligence (EI)—a set of abilities to perceive, understand, regulate, and strategically utilize emotions. Decades of research have demonstrated that EI is closely linked to a wide range of developmental outcomes.

Despite extensive empirical and theoretical progress, several important gaps remain. First, most studies still examine emotional regulation strategies in isolation. In reality, individuals draw upon an integrated system of EI, which enables them to flexibly combine multiple strategies in dynamic, context-dependent ways. This gap reduces ecological validity and limits understanding of how strategy patterns shape developmental outcomes over time. Second, the impact of EI is inherently multifaceted, nonlinear, and conditional. However, many existing works continue to model its effects as predominantly linear, overlooking potential threshold patterns, bidirectional dynamics, and individual heterogeneity. This oversimplification constrains our ability to identify when, for whom, and through which pathways emotional processes shape individual functioning and adjustment. Third, modern social and digital environments—such as online peer networks, personalized content feeds, and generative AI–produced content—have created novel contexts for both emotional expression and regulation, thereby expanding the ways in which EI is formed, developed, and manifested. Yet research has only begun to explore how these technologically mediated forms of emotion use affect cognitive, social, and psychological development, particularly among children and adolescents. Finally, EI emerges from multiple levels of functioning shaped simultaneously by neural architecture, cognitive processes, social interactions, and cultural norms. However, integrative work that connects these levels remains limited. Advancing such cross-level models is crucial for forming a mechanistic understanding of how emotional processes influence adaptation, developmental outcomes, and well-being across the lifespan.

This Special Issue aims to showcase cutting-edge research that advances our understanding of how EI-related processes shape individual trajectories across the lifespan. In line with the mission of Journal of Intelligence, we particularly encourage work that deepens our understanding of how EI and its emotional components interact with cognitive, social, and contextual factors to shape individual differences in adaptive functioning. We welcome empirical studies and theoretical reviews that investigate the antecedents, mechanisms, and consequences of EI across diverse developmental stages (e.g., childhood, adolescence, emerging adulthood, late adulthood) and contexts (e.g., family, school, workplace, digital environments).

Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

1. Profiles and Patterns of Emotion Regulation: Studies examining how individuals with different levels or profiles of EI combine multiple regulation strategies in everyday life, including strategy repertoires, flexibility, and contextual shifts.
2. Dynamic and Nonlinear Effects of Emotional Processes: Research modeling threshold effects, nonlinear trajectories, bidirectional influences, or conditional pathways linking EI to individual functioning.
3. Digital and AI-Mediated Emotional Processes: Investigations on how online peer interactions, personalized content feeds, and generative AI environments shape EI-related processes and developmental outcomes.
4. Developmental Change and Life-Course Perspectives: Longitudinal or cross-sequential studies tracing the evolution of EI across childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and older age.
5. Neurobiological and Psychophysiological Mechanisms: Work linking neural circuitry, hormonal activity, autonomic indices, or genetic factors to EI-related processes and their consequences.
6. Cross-Cultural, Familial, and Social Contexts: Studies exploring how cultural norms, family environments, peer dynamics, or socioeconomic factors shape EI.
7. Emotion Processes and Cognitive- or Intelligence-Related Outcomes: Research connecting EI with cognitive development, executive functioning, decision-making, or human creativity in a broad sense.
8. Emotion Regulation in Atypical or High-Risk Populations: Investigations involving individuals with developmental disorders, reduced or atypical EI functioning, mental health difficulties, trauma exposure, or chronic adversity.
9. 9. Intervention, Prevention, and Training Programs: Work evaluating educational, clinical, or community-based interventions designed to enhance adaptive EI-related processes.
10. Methodological Innovations in Assessing Emotional Processes: Novel tools that advance the measurement of EI, involving experience sampling, mobile sensing, digital phenotyping, computational modeling, or multimodal data integration.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Pinchao Luo
Prof. Dr. Chen Qu
Dr. Kai Dou
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• emotional intelligence
• regulatory strategy profiles
• developmental trajectories
• social-emotional learning
• emotional labor
• digital emotion expression
• emotion regulation training
• emotion assessment
• neurobiological mechanisms
• contextual and individual differences
• nonlinear and bidirectional dynamics