Date of Defense

4-21-2024

Date of Graduation

4-2024

Department

Interdisciplinary Health Programs

First Advisor

Amy Dolinski-Geib

Second Advisor

Michele McGrady

Third Advisor

Duy Ngo

Abstract

Emotional intelligence (EI), or the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings, and the ability to step outside of these feelings in order to use information to guide thinking and actions, has been shown to affect many aspects of a person’s life. Through prior research, EI has been linked to aspects such as marital satisfaction, job performance, and life satisfaction. This study examines how trait emotional intelligence affects the health of one’s support system. The association between trait EI and support system health, including other demographic variables, was measured with two separate questionnaires: one questionnaire measuring trait EI, the trait emotional intelligence questionnaire short form (TEI-Que-SF) from the London Psychometric Laboratory, and the other questionnaire measuring support system health, created through background research and prior knowledge for this study. It was hypothesized that there was an association between trait EI and support system health. The undergraduate student body at Western Michigan University was identified as the target population from which to recruit subjects for participation in this study, and 121 responses were recorded. WMU Institutional Review Board approval was obtained prior to survey recruitment and participation. The statistical significance of the relationships between the main predictor variable, trait EI global score, the auxiliary predictor variables indicated in the demographics, and the response variable, support system health score, were observed, analyzed, and discussed with a multiple linear regression based on the survey data. Results indicated trait EI global score and gender displayed a statistically significant association when compared to the score of a participant’s corresponding support system health score. Both trait emotional intelligence and gender are associated to the health of one’s support system. This paper comprehensively presents the background information necessary to understand the association between trait emotional intelligence and support system health, the methods by which the study was conducted, the calculated findings and corresponding discussion, and wraps up with future research ideas, the dialog of the outcome, and appendices containing research tools.

Access Setting

Honors Thesis-Open Access

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