Why is emotional intelligence so important in raising a child? Managing anxiety in order to tackle a big project, managing anger to work through a marital conflict, managing fear to apply for a job — the ability of a human being to manage his or her emotions in a healthy way will determine the quality of his life in a much more fundamental way than his IQ. In fact, psychologists have come to call this ability EQ, or Emotional Intelligence Quotient.

In one huge longitudinal British study published in 2011, babies were followed through childhood and into adulthood for fifty years. Their success and happiness in life was strongly correlated to their emotional intelligence. Other studies link emotional health to better mental and physical health, more academic and employment success and happier marriages.

What are the core components of high EQ? Emotional self knowledge and self acceptance, sensitivity to the cues of others, empathy (which can be defined as the ability to see and feel something from the other’s point of view), and the ability to regulate one’s own anxiety in order to talk about emotionally charged issues in a constructive way.

How to Cultivate Your Child’s Emotional Intelligence

Your child’s EQ begins with her relationship with you. How can you lay a good solid foundation?

1. Hold your infant when she wants you and respond quickly to her cries.
High EQ starts in infancy with the baby’s earliest interactions with caregivers, from which she develops feelings of security and trust.

2. Calm your own anxiety.
Almost a hundred years ago, psychologist Harry Stack Sullivan originated the idea that infants pick up anxiety from their parents. Recent research has confirmed that parents’ touch, voices, and movements can either soothe a child or stimulate anxiety.

3. Help him learn to self-soothe.
We now know that babies learn to sooth themselves by first having someone else soothe them. From this they gain the experience of their physical and emotional needs as something manageable that can be tolerated. In fact, their nervous systems actually begin to lay the groundwork for self-calming later in life, meaning that babies’ brains and nerves don’t develop adequately unless they are held and soothed when they’re upset.

Infants experience needs that aren’t met as life threatening (as unsatiated hunger, or an absent caretaker, actually could be). Emotions swamp these babies. Without the soothing they need, their nervous systems don’t lay down the pathways that would later allow them to soothe themselves. As toddlers they have a very hard time learning to self soothe or self regulate, because every feeling makes them anxious -– after all, it might lead to a catastrophe -– and escalates.

In later childhood their feelings of neediness, fear or anger can trigger sweeping anxiety or panic, leading these kids to act out because they can’t tolerate their feelings or calm themselves down.

4. Accept and acknowledge your child’s emotions.
You can (and should) limit his actions as necessary. Teach kids that they can’t choose their feelings any more then they can choose their arms and legs, but they can — and must — choose what to do with those feelings.

5. When in doubt, empathize.
Your empathy and acceptance helps your child accept her emotions, which is what allows her to resolve her feelings and move on. Your empathy teaches her that her emotional life is not dangerous, is not shameful, and in fact is universal and manageable. She learns that she is not alone. She learns that even the less pleasant parts of herself are acceptable, which means that she is wholly acceptable. And she learns to understand and accept herself.

6. Don’t try to distract him from his feelings.
And don’t shame him when he gets hurt (“A little scratch like that doesn’t hurt,” “Big boys don’t cry.”). Acknowledge, empathize, let him show you what happened, give him a little time to process. Then he’ll be ready to move on.

7. Repression doesn’t work.
Disapproving of her fear or anger won’t stop her from having those feelings, but it may well force her to repress them.

Repressed feelings don’t fade away, as feelings do that have been freely expressed. Repressed feelings are trapped and looking for a way out. Because they are not under conscious control, they pop out unmodulated, when a preschooler socks her sister or a seven year old has nightmares or an eleven year develops a nervous tic.

8. Active Listening virtually always helps diffuse intense feelings.
Accepting his feelings and reflecting them does not mean you agree with them or endorse them. You’re showing him you understand. How? Listen. Reflect. (“You sure are angry at your brother” “You seem worried about the field trip today.”)

9. Help your child learn to problem solve.
Most of the time, when kids (and adults) feel their emotions are understood and accepted, the feelings lose their charge and begin to dissipate. This leaves an opening for problem solving. Sometimes, kids can do this themselves. Sometimes, they need your help to brainstorm. But resist the urge to handle the problem for them unless they ask you to; that gives kids the message that you don’t have confidence in his ability to handle it himself.

10. Handling anger constructively is one of the most important skills you can give your child.
When he’s angry, look under the anger for the hurt or fear that his anger is defending against. Remember that he will learn what you model. Use words, not force. Don’t let anger escalate. Breathe so you can keep listening.

11. Model emotional intelligence.
What they see you do is what they will do. Do you start snapping at people when you’re under stress? Have minor tantrums when things go wrong? Can you stay calm during emotionally charged discussions? Do you empathize when feelings are expressed? So will they.

12. Intervene before your own feelings get out of hand.
Every time I find myself yelling at one of my children, I realize that the fault is mine. Not only that I am yelling, but that I didn’t intervene in an effective way before yelling was necessary.

Whether it’s picking up a tired toddler who’s dawdling or insisting that your fourteen year old help carry in the groceries, you make it clear you won’t reconsider, but you do it while you’re still calm. You maintain the peaceful tone in your house, and you teach them something useful about how to manage themselves.

If you end up screaming, they just feel picked on. They learn nothing useful and much that is harmful about how to handle their own feelings when they watch you indulge yours at their expense.

Every child has issues that he or she is afraid to discuss. And those are the issues where she most needs your support and guidance. Of course, you first need to overcome your own discomfort with the issue. Start by not feeling guilty, and see “Talking with your kids: How to Have the Tough Conversations”.

You also need regular times when your child can bring up what’s bothering him. One great way is to have a few quiet minutes at bedtime in the dark, when you ask kids about their day. What was great? What was hard? It’s amazing how the combination of dark and impending bedtime often stimulates reserved children to open up.