Emotional competence of in-service and pre-service teachers of Preschool and Elementary Education

This descriptive-correlational study assesses the emotional competence of Preschool and Elementary School teachers and university students of Preschool and Elementary School Education Degrees. There was a subsample of 92 teachers and another of 290 students. Emotional competence was operationally defined on the basis of two indicators: meta-mood states and cognitive-affective empathy. The results reveal that the level of development in most of the components of emotional competence studied are higher for those with more experience (teachers vs. students) and for those with some degree of emotional training, which indirectly supports the modifiability of emotional competence.