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 %.