A Study of the Emotional Intelligence and Interpersonal Relationships of College Students in Southern Taiwan

The main purpose of this study was to explore the emotional intelligence(EI) and interpersonal relationships(IRs) of college students and understand the important factors that were relevant to them. A cross-sectional study was adopted and a structured questionnaire was sent to the college students who agreed to participate in this study. A total of 600 subjects were recruited from three colleges in southern Taiwan, and 587questionnaires were completed and returned. SPSS18.0 was used for statistical analysis, mean, standard deviation, ANOVA, t-test, multiple regression, factor analysis and Pearson correlation were employed to analyze the data. The empirical results showed that: (1) The emotional intelligence (EI)and interpersonal relationships(IRs) of college students were above average level.(2) College students' EI and IRs showed significant differences by gender, romantic relationship, monthly allowance, family status. Female students have higher EI and IRs than male students. (3) The perceived level of EI was positive correlated with IRs. The higher the college students' emotional intelligence was, the higher interpersonal relationships was. (4) In examining the predictors of IRs, 3 important factors including " empathy "," self-regulation " and " relationship management " was found to explain 50.7% of the variance in IRs.