The Role of Strategic Emotional Intelligence in Predicting Adolescents’ Academic Achievement: Possible Interplays with Verbal Intelligence and Personality

Zorana Jolić Marjanović, Ana Altaras Dimitrijević, Sonja Protić and José M. Mestre
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Zorana Jolić Marjanović: Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
Ana Altaras Dimitrijević: Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
Sonja Protić: Institute for Criminological and Sociological Research, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
José M. Mestre: University Institute of Social and Sustainable Development (INDESS), University of Cádiz, 11405 Jerez de la Frontera, Spain

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 24, 1-20

Abstract: As recent meta-analyses confirmed that emotional intelligence (EI), particularly strategic EI, adjoins intelligence and personality in predicting academic achievement, we explored possible arrangements in which these predictors affect the given outcome in adolescents. Three models, with versions including either overall strategic EI or its branches, were considered: (a) a mediation model, whereby strategic EI partially mediates the effects of verbal intelligence (VI) and personality on achievement; the branch-level version assumed that emotion understanding affects achievement in a cascade via emotion management; (b) a direct effects model, with strategic EI/branches placed alongside VI and personality as another independent predictor of achievement; and (c) a moderation model, whereby personality moderates the effects of VI and strategic EI/branches on achievement. We tested these models in a sample of 227 students ( M = 16.50 years) and found that both the mediation and the direct effects model with overall strategic EI fit the data; there was no support for a cascade within strategic EI, nor for the assumption that personality merely moderates the effects of abilities on achievement. Principally, strategic EI both mediated the effects of VI and openness, and independently predicted academic achievement, and it did so through emotion understanding directly, “skipping” emotion management.

Keywords: strategic emotional intelligence; emotion understanding; emotion management; verbal intelligence; Big Five; academic achievement; adolescents (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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