Emotional Intelligence and Academic Performance in University Students

Abstract

This study focuses on determining the relationships between emotional intelligence and academic performance in the training of undergraduate students in Basic Education and Psychology at the Universidad Península de Santa Elena in Ecuador. A quantitative, cross-sectional, and descriptive-correlational design was employed. A non-probability, purposive sample of 361 students over 18 years of age, enrolled from the first to fourth semesters, participated in the study. The Trait Meta-Mood Scale (TMMS-24) was used, consisting of 24 items distributed across three dimensions: emotional attention (the ability to recognize one's own emotions), emotional clarity (the ability to adequately understand them), and emotional repair (the competence to regulate negative emotional states and maintain positive ones). Findings revealed that students with higher levels of emotional intelligence tend to show better personal organization, greater perseverance, and effective coping strategies for academic stress, translating into more stable and satisfactory academic performance. In this regard, the higher scores obtained by first- and third-semester students might reflect better emotional self-regulation and greater enthusiasm for learning, whereas the decrease observed in the fourth semester could be linked to an increase in academic demands, a potential decline in emotional motivation, and the presence of social and academic pressures as well as anxiety states.