Role of Emotional Intelligence, Resilience, and Year of Enrollment for Adjustment Among University Students

Transition to university and adjustment at university is an important milestone in any individual’s life affecting all other life domains. Present research is intended to analyze the role of emotional intelligence, resilience, and year of enrollment in student’s adjustment at university. For this purpose, it was hypothesized that a) emotional intelligence and resilience will be significant predictors of students’ adjustment in university; b) first-year students will face more adjustment-related issues as compared to second, third, and fourth-year students. Three hundred students between the age range of 17 to 26 years (M = 20.91, SD = 2.01) from different universities of Karachi participated in the study. Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test (Schutte et al., 1998), Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (Connor & Davidson, 2003), and Adjustment Scale (Kaya & Weber, 2003) were administered on participants. Emotional intelligence and resilience were found to be the significant positive predictors of student’s adjustment at university. However, contrary to our hypothesis, the first-year students reported better adjustment as compared to all other groups. In addition, second year students scored lowest on adjustment among all groups. Further, second year students have lower resilience as compared to fourth year students. The findings of this research provide implications to enhance students’ emotional intelligence and resilience through training sessions by keeping in mind their academic enrollment year.