The Relation between Academic Achievement and Emotional Intelligence in Iranian Students: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Academic achievement is one of the most important concepts in the field of education. Although emotional intelligence, as a key factor in academic achievement, has been studied in various studies, yet the results obtained are not in harmony with each other and the topic is yet under debate. In order to fill in this informational vacuum, the present research was undergone using a meta-analysis method. In order to make a thorough search to find articles within the Iranian context, key words such as "Emotional Intelligence" AND (Emotional OR Intelligence) AND "academic achievement" OR "academic status" AND "Student" AND "Iran", were used without limitation in dates or language in the following sites: Medline, Scopus, ScienceDirect, Web of Knowledge, Ovid, Wiley, Google Scholar, and Persian databases such as SID, Irandoc and Magiran. The random effect model was utilized for statistical pooling. A total of 23 articles were chosen to enter the meta-analysis. The pooled results showed a meaningful relationship between emotional intelligence and academic achievement (Pooled Correlation = 0.157; 95% CI, 0.081-0.231). The Cochran Q (Q = 145: 126, p = 0.000) and I-2 = 84.84% index indicated a high heterogeneity among the articles entering the meta-analysis. In subgroup analysis, the students in state universities had more summary effect (0.177; 95% CI, 0.085 -0.267) compared to the ones studying in private ones (0.118; 95% CI, 0.024-0.255). No sign of publication bias was found. A weak correlation was seen between emotional intelligence and educational achievement in the context of Iranian university students. It seems that the relationship of these concepts may be affected by other factors in this setting, so this calls for further studies in this field.