The Relationship between Loneliness and Emotional Intelligence: A Study on Theology Faculty Students

Loneliness can be defined as the subjective feeling of being alone or disconnected from others; emotional intelligence (EI) can be defined as the capacity to be aware of one's emotions, to control and express them, and to handle interpersonal relationships in a prudent and empat-hetic manner. This study aims to theoretically and empirically examine the relationship between loneliness and emotional intelligence on theology faculty students. In addition to the risk factors carried by their peers, it is assumed that the research group is disadvantaged in adaptation and loneliness in terms of socio-economic conditions, religious education and professional responsibilities. Fort his purpose, the research was conducted on the group stud-ying at Sivas Cumhuriyet University Faculty of Theology and Tokat Gaziosmanpasa University Faculty of Islamic Sciences. 326 participants voluntarily participated in the study. The average age of the participants between the ages of 18-30 was 21. The data of the research carried out in September-October of the 2021-2022 academic year were collected with Personal Informa-tion Form, UCLA Loneliness Scale and Schutte Emotional Intelligence Scale. The data collected by the questionnaire technique were transferred to the SPSS 23.0 statistical program and Pe-arson Moment Multiplication Correlation Analysis, Independent Sample t-Test, One-Way ANOVA and Tukey HSD tests were applied. According to the main finding of the study, there is a negative way, medium level (r =-.472) statistically significant relationship (p < 0.01) between the loneliness averages and emotional intelligence averages (EI) of the theology fa-culty students. The relationship between loneliness and emotional intelligence also shows significant differences according to socio-demographic variables such as gender, age, acade-mic achievement, faculty, familial factors. The findings were discussed in the light of the lite-rature. According to the results of the research, emotional intelligence can be considered as a preventive and improvable factor against loneliness and potential negative consequences for theology faculty students.