The effect of emotional intelligence, ethnic identity, and ethnicity on college adjustment

Abstract

This study was an examination of how individual attributes including emotional intelligence and ethnic identity are related to college adjustment. The participants were 178 undergraduate students aged 18 and over. Data were collected via an on-line survey over the course of 3 years from 2012-2015 and analyzed using descriptive statistics, Spearman's rank-order correlation, and multiple regression. As hypothesized, there was a weak negative correlation between total Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire (SACQ) and the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM) score, where lower scores mean stronger ethnic identification. There was a strong positive correlation between the SACQ score and the Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test (SREIT) score, where higher scores mean better emotional intelligence. The MEIM and SREIT statistically significantly predicted college adjustment scores and scores on the four subscales of college adjustment- academic adjustment, social adjustment, personal-emotional adjustment, and goal commitment/institutional attachment. For the subscales of academic adjustment, personal-emotional adjustment, and goal commitment/institutional attachment, only changes to SREIT score were statistically significantly different from zero. For the subscale of Social Adjustment, changes in both MEIM score and SREIT score were statistically significantly different from zero. The study also found that race (specifically being identified as a person of color versus white) did not have a moderating effect on the relationships among emotional intelligence, ethnic identity, and college adjustment. This study is the first to examine these variables together as they affect college adjustment.