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Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence and Self-Esteem and its Impact on Student’s

Academic Performance

Haider Dost and Maryam Sana

Department of Psychology, University of Peshawar

Edu-711: Theories of Learning

Dr. Amjad Riba

January 10, 2021

Abstract

The present research has focused on an important topic in the domain of psychology i.e. “emotional

intelligence and self-esteem”. The research has further explored the influence of emotional

intelligence and self-esteem on students and what are the consequences of this association on their

academic performance. More than 20 research papers and articles were reviewed for the purpose

of answering the research questions highlighted in the study. The sources of information included

Pakistani research papers and articles and some international research papers and articles. After

comprehensive review analysis, it was revealed that there is strong positive association of

emotional intelligence and self-esteem. Furthermore, it was also identified that the students who

have higher level of emotional intelligence and self-esteem depict better academic performance as

well at college and university level. The present study is of unique nature because not many studies

have been carried out in to understand the effects of emotional intelligence and self-esteem over

academic performance of students. Some recommendations and future research directions have

been mentioned afterwards as well.

Keywords: Emotional Intelligence, Self-Esteem, Academic Performance, Students.

Introduction

Teachers and other education officials are always concerned about preventing academic failures

of students and assisting them in enhancing their overall academic performance. Each year, there

is a significant amount of money which is lost because of academic failures and poor academic

performance of students are college and university level (Nayak, 2018). Governments and non-

profit organizations are actively investing in improving the education systems in an anticipation to

see progress in student’s academic performance (MacCann et al., 2020). Therefore, paying close

attention to the factors which effect academic performance of students at college and university

level becomes vital. One of these influential factors as identified by prior literature is emotional

intelligence of the students (Shamsaei, Yousefi, & Sadeghi, 2017). However, studies focusing on

the role of emotional intelligence of students at college and university level are limited (Parker,

Saklofske, & Keefer, 2017; Suleman et al., 2019; Rehman, Amjad, & Laila, 2019). Similarly, self-

esteem has also been identified as a key determinant of emotional intelligence in some previous

studies (Zheng & Wu, 2020). Nevertheless, research focusing on the association between

emotional intelligence and self-esteem is very scarce and it becomes scanter as we consider the

influence of this association over academic performance of students at college and university level

(Parker, Saklofske, & Keefer, 2017; Rehman, Amjad, & Laila, 2019). Broadly, this research aims

to answer following research questions.

1. What is the association between emotional intelligence and self-esteem among college and

university students?

2. How does the association between emotional intelligence and self-esteem among college

and university students affect their academic performance?

For addressing these research questions, we have filtered most relevant and recent research papers

from Pakistani and international contexts and reviewed these papers to present a conceptual

overview analysis that is going to help us in coming up with the realistic conclusion. At first, the

concepts of emotional intelligence and self-esteem have been explained and afterwards their

association has been analyzed in relationship with academic performance of college and university

students.

Conceptual Overview

Mayer and Solovey (1997) presented the concept of emotional intelligence for the very first time

in psychology literature. The researchers defined it as “Emotional Intelligence, as an ability, is

capacity of understanding, expressing, knowing, using and managing the emotions of you and

others”. Moreover, Gardner (1992) explained this concept by presenting and explaining the EQ

model of “Multiple Intelligences”. This model described that EQ has two broad types and these

are “Intra-intelligence” and “Inter-intelligence”. As described earlier, self-esteem is also an

important factor in this regard and it refers to how much satisfied a person is from himself or

herself and is able to see self-worth. Hosseini et al. (2007) explained that self-esteem serves the

purpose of how people perceive or think about themselves. Now we will analyze the relevant

literature and present an overview of the conceptual analysis to see the association of emotional

intelligence with self-esteem and whether or not these constructs affect the academic performance

of university and college students.

It has been explored that greater level of emotional intelligence leads to greater level of self-esteem

among university students (Bibi, Saqlain, & Mussawar, 2016). In other words, emotional

intelligence can be perceived as a very strong determinant of self-esteem of students. Similarly,

Mehmood and Gulzar (2014) conducted research on college students to investigate the association
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of emotional intelligence and self-esteem while considering the role of gender as well. It was

concluded in the research that as the level of emotional intelligence rises, the level of self-esteem

also rises. On the other side, as the level of emotional intelligence decreases, the level of self-

esteem decreases as well. The results were not having any influence of the gender to affect this

association. Moreover, quite a few studies have identified positive and strong correlation of

emotional intelligence and self-esteem of students in Asian and European contexts (Khan et al.,

2012; Ahmed, Asim, & Pellitteri, 2019; Sa et al., 2019).

Ranasinghe et al. (2017) carried out research to understand the influence of emotional intelligence

on academic performance of university students. The study revealed that there is strong positive

association of emotional intelligence with university student’s academic performance. The study

further explored that as the emotional intelligence level of university students rises, there is

decrease in their behavior of breaking education regulations. More emotionally intelligent studetns

tend to be more obedient students and tend to have better relations with teachers and education

officials. The comfort level and adoptability of emotionally intelligent students are more towards

the educational institute’s environment as compared to those students who are low in emotional

intelligence. The authors suggested that emotional intelligence may be used by education officials

in training situations if they really want to put in efforts for effective academic performance of

their students. Similarly, Jan and Anwar (2019) elaborated the need to pay more attention to the

concept of emotional intelligence for enhancing student’s academic performance because

emotional intelligence can be regarded as superior tool to anticipate societal achievements when

compared with traditional intelligence concepts. Students having higher emotional intelligence

level are observed to possess superior societal skills, ability to cope up with conflicts situations

and tend to have steadier relations. Amalu (2018) also identified that emotional intelligence in
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college students leads to higher level of cognitive abilities which assist them in achieving higher

academic performance.

The relationship of self-esteem with academic performance of students have been researched in

diversified contexts as well. Asakereh and Yousofi (2018) figured out that students at university

level who possess higher self-esteem level are observed to depict greater academic performance

as compared to the students who have lower level of self-esteem. Similarly, Khan, Mahmood and

Zaib (2019) conducted research on college students for understanding the influence of self-esteem

over male and female student’s academic performance. It was revealed that regardless of the

gender of students, the self-esteem is a strong influencer of academic performance. Both male and

female students who scored higher on self-esteem showed better academic performance as

compared to other students.

Conclusion

It is evident from the conceptual overview analysis that there are numerous studies in Asian and

other contexts that have identified significant and positive relationship of emotional intelligence

of college and university students with their self-esteem. Furthermore, both emotional intelligence

and self-esteem have been identified as strong influencers of the academic performance of the

students at college and university level. It is therefore recommended that teachers and education

officials should take into consideration the role of emotional intelligence and self-esteem as they

make efforts to enhance the academic performance level of their students. Specifically, more

training sessions for improving the emotional intelligence level of students should be carried out

so that it can uplift the self-esteem level of students and eventually result in improving their overall

academic performance. The present research was limited to review analysis of previous literature.

Future studies can explore the association between these emotional intelligence, self-esteem and
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academic performance of students through empirical analysis across specific cultures and

communities. Also, future studies can focus on the role of gender in this regard to observe whether

or not there are any gender differences that might be taken into consideration by the policy makers.
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