Emotional intelligence can be defined as a personality trait or an ability to recognise, understand and control personal or other people's emotions, in addition to enabling an individual to become aware of their own emotions and ways they influence behaviour and interactions with other people. Furthermore, many individual differences are influenced by our parents and are partly shaped by our permanent family relationships and by our personality traits. The aim of this study was to examine the role quality of relationships with parents and personality traits have in the explanation of the trait of emotional intelligence. This study was conducted online on the sample of 1063 adult males and females. Results of multiple regression analysis show that the model including nine predictors – parental support from mother, parental support from father, restrictive control of mother, restrictive control of father, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness to experience – explains 50% of overall variance of the trait of emotional intelligence. Parental support from mother, extraversion, conscientiousness and openness to experience proved to be positive predictors, while neuroticism proved to be considerably negative predictor. Results of this study can be used as a basis for the development of practical guidelines for both parents and children with the aim of raising awareness about the importance of the quality of family relationships, which can consequently influence child's emotional development.