The Role of Meta-Emotional Intelligence in Behavioral Rule Knowledge

Emotional intelligence (EI) and its meta-cognitive counterpart, meta-emotional intelligence (MEI), have increasingly been recognized as key factors in helping students understand, regulate, and reflect on their emotional experiences. MEI expands upon EI by incorporating meta-cognitive beliefs and awareness about one’s own emotional functioning, thereby influencing both emotional regulation and positive behavioral choices. This study examined the relationship between MEI and the knowledge of positive behavioral rules among 198 students aged 9 to 12. Participants completed the IE-ACCME-B, which assesses meta-emotional beliefs, emotional self-conceptualization, and emotional abilities, along with the PBIS-KGVE, a tool developed ad hoc to measure knowledge, generalization, and value-based understanding of school rules. Findings highlight that almost all considered variables are intercorrelated, with meta-emotional beliefs being the best predictor of the students’ knowledge, generalization, and value-based interpretation of behavioral rules. These results suggest the opportunity to establish interventions focused on meta-emotional beliefs to enhance behavioral rule knowledge and foster prosocial development within educational contexts.