Resilience and emotional intelligence in university education students

Resumo

A concept that is becoming increasingly relevant in our society is emotional intelligence, as it is presented as a set of competencies that help us to achieve greater academic and professional success. In this vein, the role played by resilience is also important, understood as the ability we have to adapt to the diverse situations we face in our daily lives. The main objective of this study is to determine the relationship between resilience and emotional intelligence scores in a sample of university students. The sample consisted of 173 students of the Undergraduate Degree in Early Childhood Education and Primary Education at the University of Alicante (Spain), with the majority being women (75.1%). Two instruments were used for data collection: the 24-item Trait Meta-mood Scale and the 25-item Connor and Davidson Resilience Scale. Regarding the analyses, Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used to assess the relationship between resilience and emotional intelligence, and a stepwise multiple regression analysis was conducted, using the resilience score as the criterion variable. The study results indicated that resilience correlates with two of the measured variables of emotional intelligence: emotional clarity and emotional regulation. In contrast, it does not correlate with emotional attention. Likewise, clarity and regulation act as predictors of student resilience. The analyses revealed that independently, the greater the emotional regulation and emotional clarity, the higher the level of resilience.