The Relationship Between Self Compassion and Emotional Intelligence for University Students

Abstract

The purposes of the present study were: (1) To adapt an Arabic version of self-compassion scale and (2) to examine the relationship between self compassion and emotional intelligence for university students and (3) to explore the differences in self-compassion according to demographic variables. To check the first purpose, study one was run, data was collected from two samples; the first sample consisted of 272 undergraduate students (47% males and 53% females) from Assiut University in Egypt, their ages (M = 19.79 years and SD = 0.73), the second sample consisted of 373 undergraduate students (52% males and 48% females) from King Khalid University (KKU) in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, their ages (M = 19.96 years and SD = 0.70). To check the second purpose, study two was run, data was collected from 185 undergraduate students (52% males and 48% females) from KKU, their ages (M = 21.82 years and SD = 1.05). The present study used the Arabic version of self compassion scale and Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire to check the purposes. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and item-total correlations, used to check the psychometric properties of the Arabic version self-compassion scale, Person correlations used to examine the relationship between self compassion and emotional intelligence and ANOVA was run to explore the differences in self-compassion according to demographic variables. Results indicated that: (1) Arabic version self compassion scale has good psychometric properties, (2) significant positive correlation was found between self compassion and Emotional Intelligence, (3) Women reported significantly lower than men in mindfulness, over-identification, higher than men in overall self-compassion scores, self-judgment and isolation and no significant differences were found between males and females in Self-Kindness and Common Humanity. Also results showed that accommodation place or studying specialization had no significant affect in self compassion.