Emotional Intelligence and Self-Direction Orientation: An Examination of Non-Academic Factors in Post-Pandemic Community College Students in Kansas and Missouri
Abstract
Post-pandemic learners face academic and non-academic challenges due the educational disruption caused by the COVID-19 virus. ACT college admissions test scores dropped to a 30- year low in 2023, falling the most significantly and rapidly during and after the pandemic (ACT, 2023) and recovery from these childhood and adolescent learning deficits has not been seen to date (Betthäuser et al., 2023). Research on non-academic factors, not as widely studied as academic factors, is crucial to understand where these learners’ deficits further lie. Two of those factors – emotional intelligence and self-direction orientation – were the key concepts of interest in this study. Literature addresses emotional intelligence (EI) as a factor in life success including college completion and define it as a learned trait that can be improved with training (Lea et al., 2019; Stowell, 2017; Walsh-Portillo, 2011). Self-direction orientation or readiness requires a learner to have high self-efficacy and sense of personal responsibility over their own learning (Merriam et al., 2007). A learner’s age has been established as a factor in self-direction orientation and emotional intelligence research (Mayer et al., 2000; Roessger et al., 2019). This study used multiple linear regression to investigate the relationship between emotional intelligence and self-direction orientation among post-pandemic Kansas and Missouri community college students. The association of learner age on the relationship between these two non-academic factors was also analyzed to understand the potential impact of both natural age and the generational experience of the pandemic. Data were collected from 203 community college students enrolled in the second half of a basic communications course from seven community colleges in the states of Missouri and Kansas. Significant relationships were found between self-direction orientation and emotional intelligence and self-direction orientation and age. No significant interaction was found between age and emotional intelligence. Based on these findings, community college leaders and practitioners should consider changes to advising policies and procedures, modifications to curriculum, and adjustments to instructional methods to meet the abilities of contemporary post-pandemic learners.
Disciplines
Adult and Continuing Education | Community College Leadership | Online and Distance Education
Recommended Citation
Rader, A. (2024). Emotional Intelligence and Self-Direction Orientation: An Examination of Non-Academic Factors in Post-Pandemic Community College Students in Kansas and Missouri (Doctoral dissertation, University of Arkansas).