Emotional Maturity: What Is It And How To Develop It?
Emotional maturity is not something that is achieved overnight, it is a process that requires a lot of learning. Children begin to acquire this learning from the first years of life. Thus, little by little, and as they interact with the world, they become emotionally more intelligent.
However, it’s not always like that. There are many little ones who grow up and, although they become adults, they continue to be emotionally immature. To prevent this from happening to your child, it is important that you provide them with opportunities to develop their emotional competencies. How to do it? Along the following lines we give you some guidelines that may be useful.
What is emotional maturity?
According to Martin Castañeda Murillo, psychologist and professor at the UMCH (Marcelino Champagnat University), a person is considered to be emotionally mature when he “develops in his thought and behavior attitudes that make him overcome” infantilism “and applies them both towards his person and towards the environment that surrounds it ”.
Therefore, emotional maturity can be defined as the ability to recognize, understand and value one’s own emotions and those of others, adapting behaviors and attitudes according to the social context.
How to develop it?
Mothers and fathers are primarily responsible for the education of their children, which also implies having to teach them to be emotionally mature. For this, it is necessary for the parents to previously develop a high emotional intelligence, so that they can transmit their knowledge on the subject to the children.
But it is not about giving theoretical classes to children on emotional education, but about putting these emotional skills into practice every day. A good way to do this is by creating a climate at home in which the following elements prevail :
- Communication.
- Active listening.
- Affection and affection.
- The sincerity.
- Empathy
- Mutual respect.
- Patience.
- Understanding.
Also, if children see how their parents speak openly about their feelings and emotions, they too will do so quite naturally. This will allow them to grow by knowing themselves better and understanding others better.
The importance of developing emotional maturity during childhood
Childhood is the best time to teach emotional education, as it is when children are in a critical learning period in which they absorb like sponges all the information they receive and observe in their environment.
Therefore, it is necessary to equip children, from the first years of life, with emotional competencies that allow them to behave and relate in a positive and appropriate way in different situations and social contexts.
Obviously, these skills will be acquired over time, as they grow and develop evolutionarily. But, without a doubt it is important to begin as soon as possible to sow good values in the hearts of the children. In fact, the American professor Howard G. Hendricks already said:
In short, emotional education must be given the place it deserves in the home. Only then can children grow mentally healthy, mature and balanced. This will help them build their own identity, as well as forge a positive self-esteem and develop the security and confidence they need to live happily and fully.
And you, do you think you are educating your child to be emotionally mature in the future? If not, it’s time you did something to remedy it.
