Exploring Emotional Intelligence and Academic Performance of Filipino University Academic Achievers

The responsibility of academic institutions to produce holistically developed individuals puts compounded pressure on the school administrators to raise students’ achievement. While most learning institutions put a premium on readying its learners in attaining scholastic success, it is quite apparent how most Philippine schools neglected to put an ample attention to one’s emotional and social growth. This current study utilized a descriptive-correlational design—with a randomized sample of 203 university academic achievers between ages of 16 to 21—to generate relationships among factors derived from Emotional Quotient-i: Youth Version (EQ-i:YV) and academic performance as measured by General Pointed Average (GPA). Pearson’s correlations suggested that the overall emotional intelligence has significant positive associations with intrapersonal, interpersonal, stress management, adaptability and general mood scales while overall emotional intelligence and its composite scales are related to academic performance. Thus the findings affirmed the claim that the more the academic achievers become emotional-social intelligent, the higher their tendency to exude academic prowess. This study further highlights the potential implications of emotional intelligence in educational progress and academic success; hence emotional intelligence-based activities should be integrated in higher education curriculum.