Journal article
Emotional intelligence predicts academic performance: a meta-analysis
- Abstract:
- Schools and universities devote considerable time and resources to developing students’ social and emotional skills, such as emotional intelligence (EI). The goals of such programs are partly for personal development but partly to increase academic performance. The current meta-analysis examines the degree to which student EI is associated with academic performance. We found an overall effect of .20 using robust variance estimation (N 42,529, k 1,246 from 158 citations). The association is significantly stronger for ability EI ( .24, k 50) compared with self-rated ( .12, k 33) or mixed EI ( .19, k 90). Ability, self-rated, and mixed EI explained an additional 1.7%, 0.7%, and 2.3% of the variance, respectively, after controlling for intelligence and big five personality. Understanding and management branches of ability EI explained an additional 3.9% and 3.6%, respectively. Relative importance analysis suggests that EI is the third most important predictor for all three streams, after intelligence and conscientiousness. Moderators of the effect differed across the three EI streams. Ability EI was a stronger predictor of performance in humanities than science. Self-rated EI was a stronger predictor of grades than standardized test scores. We propose that three mechanisms underlie the EI/academic performance link: (a) regulating academic emotions, (b) building social relationships at school, and (c) academic content overlap with EI. Different streams of EI may affect performance through different mechanisms. We note some limitations, including the lack of evidence for a causal direction.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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- Files:
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(Preview, Accepted manuscript, pdf, 1.8MB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1037/bul0000219
Authors
- Publisher:
- American Psychological Association
- Journal:
- Psychological Bulletin More from this journal
- Publication date:
- 2019-12-12
- Acceptance date:
- 2019-10-22
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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1939-1455
- ISSN:
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0033-2909
- Pubs id:
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pubs:1073494
- UUID:
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uuid:0a45dd6a-1873-46e8-ba29-9485995280c9
- Local pid:
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pubs:1073494
- Source identifiers:
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1073494
- Deposit date:
-
2019-11-22
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- APA
- Copyright date:
- 2019
- Notes:
- © 2019 APA, all rights reserved. This is the accepted manuscript version of the article. The final version will be available in a forthcoming journal from the American Psychological Association.
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