Disclosed is a polymer light-emitting material for an organic electroluminescent device that displays excellent light-emitting performance and is applicable to a wet process. The polymer light-emitting material for an organic electroluminescent device is obtained by subjecting a thermoplastic resin having an Mw of 2,000-1,000,000 and containing a functional group in a unit constituting the backbone and a metal-containing phosphorescent dopant compound containing a reactive group capable of reacting with the said functional group to a polymer reaction so as to link a phosphorescent dopant moiety derived from the metal-containing phosphorescent dopant compound to the unit constituting the backbone of the thermoplastic resin. The content of the metal derived from the metal-containing phosphorescent dopant compound in the said polymer light-emitting material is 0.001-20 wt%.