Effects of Regulation of Emotions in the Self and Others on Changes in Emotional Intelligence During a Term Examination Period

When individuals experience stressful events, regulating negative emotions caused by these events could function as training for handling emotions appropriately and could contribute to a change in emotional intelligence. The present study, in which the term examination period was the stressful event, investigated whether regulating emotions in the self and others results in a change in emotional intelligence. In order to investigate this, a scale to measure various behaviors for regulating emotions in the self and others was developed. Undergraduates (61 males, 40 females) completed questionnaires before and after the term examination period. The results suggested that positive reappraisal, distraction, support for positive reappraisal, and support for emotional expression were positively related to a change in both intrapersonal and interpersonal emotional intelligence during the term examination period. Support for distraction was positively related to a change in interpersonal emotional intelligence. Moreover, emotion regulation for handling the stress of term examinations was more strongly related to a change in emotional intelligence than to dispositional emotion regulation or level of stress, The present results suggest that regulating emotions in the self and others during an examination period could contribution positively to a change in emotional intelligence.