Emotional-Social Intelligence and Sexuality Among Jamaican Adolescents

This chapter reviews the relationship between emotional-social intelligence (ESI) and sexual knowledge, attitudes and behaviours among Jamaican youths. Five hundred adolescents completed a self-report questionnaire consisting of the Bar-On EQ-i:YV(S), a measure of ESI, a sexual knowledge and attitude questionnaire as well as the Adolescent Risk Inventory’s sex risk scale. Statistical analyses identified significant relationships (p < 0.05) between ESI and the adolescents’ sexuality. The result shows that interpersonal skills were found to be related to the adolescents’ attitude towards sexual behaviour, attitude towards transactional sex and also their sexual role negotiations.