Levels of emotional intelligence and student engagement in Eritrean college students

The study sought to explore the levels of emotional intelligence and academic engagement among college students, which has not been extensively represented in the existing literature within the Eritrean higher educational context. The study comprised a sample of 119 senior Asmara College of Education students selected through the convenience sampling strategy. The Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test and Student Engagement Scale were employed to assess the levels of emotional intelligence and student engagement of the participants. Frequency distribution, Pearson-moment correlation, and independent sample t-tests were conducted for data analysis. A significance level of 0.05 was selected to determine statistical significance when testing the relationships of emotional intelligence and engagement with demographic variables. The findings of the study revealed that most students exhibited moderate to high levels of emotional intelligence and academic engagement. The independent sample t-tests indicated that female students tended to have higher levels of emotional intelligence and also reported higher behavioral engagement compared to male students. Regarding the program of study, students from the Department of Psychology and Educational Administration showed higher levels of emotional intelligence than Science education students. Conversely, Science Education students displayed greater cognitive engagement compared to those in Psychology and Educational Administration. Age was found to have a significant association with academic engagement, with older students demonstrating higher levels compared to younger students. However, the Pearson product-moment results demonstrated that significant emotional intelligence scores did not significantly differ across different age groups. The findings are expected to offer significant insights into student engagement and emotional intelligence within the context of higher education. Moreover, this study can offer practical guidance for college communities on fostering students' levels of engagement in learning and emotional skills.