Emotional intelligence and subjective well-being in tertiary teaching: A pilot study

Abstract

This is the third paper in a series reporting a multi-componential pilot study to investigate the emotional experiences and well-being of teachers in New Zealand tertiary (post-secondary school) institutions. Twelve of the tertiary teachers who completed emotion diaries and who were interviewed about their emotion regulation strategies, also completed a set of online questionnaires that included measures for subjective well-being, happiness and emotional intelligence (El). The small sample size prevents any generalizations, and the results are treated as estimates only. Correlations were found between El scores and tertiary teachers' subjective well-being. Multiple regression analysis of four interview questions obtaining categorical data against participants' El scores, explained a significant amount of variance of these scores. With tertiary teachers being a relatively small cohort nationally compared to overseas samples, these indicators from this small sample provide a basis for recommending a larger and more rigorous study focusing on the New Zealand context in the future. This study contributes to the field in New Zealand specifically because previous New Zealand research evidence suggests that El characteristics of tertiary teachers are significantly related lo student enrolment.