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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Higher Education
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1567418
This article is part of the Research Topic Empowerment Through Education Innovative Interventions for Higher Education Students View all 13 articles
Emotional Intelligence and Academic Achievement among First Year Undergraduate University Students: The Mediating Role of Academic Engagement
Provisionally accepted- 1 Department of Psychology, Wollo University, Dessie, Amhara, Ethiopia
- 2 Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar, Amhara Region, Ethiopia
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between emotional intelligence and academic achievement using academic engagement as a mediator. To accomplish this objective, a correlational research design was employed. First-year regular undergraduate students attending at Wollo University during the 2023/2024 academic year were the target population. TEIQue-SF and UWES-S were used to collect data from 1351 randomly selected students. First semester grade point average was used to get scores on academic achievement. The following analyses were performed: descriptive statistics, Pearson product moment correlation, Measurement model analysis to ascertain the reliability and validity of measures used in the study and SEM analysis to test the relationship between the study variables. The results revealed trait EI was positively related to academic engagement (r =0.350) and academic achievement(r=0.407) and academic engagement with academic achievement(r=0.628). The measurement model analysis confirmed an acceptable level of reliability and construct validity of the TEIQue-SF and UWES-S measures. Findings showed that trait EI had a positive and direct effect on academic achievement and academic engagement. Trait EI and academic engagement explained 49.9% of the variance in academic achievement. Mediation analyses revealed that academic engagement partially mediates the effect of emotional intelligence on students' academic achievement (β =.220, p = 0.000). This implies that the positive effect EI on academic achievement further strengthened by academic engagement. It is suggested that curriculum developers and educators need to give due attention to the intervention strategies that promote students' EI skills and their academic engagement.
Keywords: Emotional Intelligence, Academic engagement, academic, Achievement, engagement
Received: 27 Jan 2025; Accepted: 03 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Bereded, Abebe and Negassi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Derib Gosim Bereded, Department of Psychology, Wollo University, Dessie, Amhara, Ethiopia
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