Psychological characteristics of emotional intelligence development in generation z university students

Abstract

The article investigates the psychological characteristics of emotional intelligence development among Generation Z university students. An empirical study was conducted employing four psychodiagnostic instruments: the Hall Emotional Intelligence Test (EQ Hall), the Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test (SSEIT), the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS-36), and the Trait Meta-Mood Scale (TMMS-30). The study involved 33 students enrolled at Simon Kuznets Kharkiv National University of Economics. The findings indicate that the vast majority of participants demonstrate an average level of general emotional intelligence — 45.5% according to the Hall Test and 48.5% according to the Schutte Test — while one in three students exhibits a low level of emotional intelligence. The most alarming result is the critically high prevalence of difficulties in emotion regulation: 84.8% of students display moderate or severe emotional dysregulation, reflecting a deficit of effective strategies for managing negative emotional states under conditions of academic workload and wartime social stressors. The identified phenomenon of "emotional hypervigilance" suggests that heightened attention to one's own experiences, in the absence of effective regulatory strategies, may exacerbate rather than alleviate difficulties in emotional functioning. The findings may serve as a foundation for developing targeted psychological support programmes for student youth.