Introduction: The present study examined the effect of applying an emotional intelligence program on social-emotional competence and school coexistence to pupils in early childhood education. Method: A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest study was conducted with a non-equivalent control group. The sample consisted of 346 subjects, 173 5-year-old students and 173 parents from four schools in the town of Lorca (Murcia). The one-year emotional intelligence program "EMOTI" (Hurtado and Salas, 2019) was applied, as well as a student questionnaire on social competence and a family questionnaire on school coexistence. SPSS version 25.0 was used for the data analysis. Results: The results showed that students in the experimental group, who received the program application, manifested fewer aggressive behaviors. This indicates that they improved in social competence and in their ability to express and regulate their emotions, resulting in improved school coexistence. Discussion and conclusions: This paper is one of the first studies using a sample from early childhood education that analyzes the effect of an emotional intelligence program for improving social competence and school coexistence