The influence of emotional intelligence on academic stress among medical students in Neyshabur, Iran

Although, several novel strategies related to coping with stress dominate the possible vicissitudes that may occur, academic stress and its mental and physical outcomes remain a serious public concern among college students. Available data on how/where intervention-based novel strategies and emotional intelligence skills can influence students' ability to deal with stress and crisis situations is still unclear. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of an educational intervention based on emotional intelligence on the level of academic stress components among Iranian medical students. This research has been done in two descriptive and quasi-experimental sections in the academic year 2018-2019. To determine the effect of emotional intelligence components on stress levels, this descriptive study was performed on 200 students. Then, a quasi-experimental study was then conducted to determine the impact of an emotional intelligence component-based educational intervention on academic stress-coping skills. Data were collected through a personal information questionnaire, Bradbury and Graves's emotional intelligence questionnaire, and Gadzella's academic stress questionnaire. Most of the participants were female (72.3%) married (72%), non-native (62.1%), and second or third academic years (78.5%). The mean number of academic years of employment was 9.5. The mean age of students were 23 ± 3.5 years old. Intervention based on emotional intelligence significantly (p