Methodology:
A quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional, questionnaire-based survey
to measure the emotional intelligence of medical students was conducted
in the faculties of medicine of Al-Quds and Al-Najah Universities in
Palestine from 25th April 2019 to
28th May 2019. The study protocol was approved by the
Research Ethics Committee of Al-Quds University (79/REC/2019 ).
Data was collected using the standardized, structured, validated, and
reliable questionnaire of Schutte et al. (1998) presented in a
nonprobability pattern via online Google Forms. The use of Google Forms
provided several potential benefits, including speed and ease of data
collection and allowing students to complete the test at a time and
place convenient to them. The survey was shared via social media. The
target population included undergraduate medical students and clinical
residency students at the faculties of medicine in both mentioned
universities. Reasons for exclusion were: being from a different
university (other than Al-Quds and Al-Najah) and not having completed
the form. The appropriate sample size for a population of 4620 ± 5
students was calculated using an online tool
(http://www.surveysystem.com/sscalc.htm) with a margin error of 0.05 and
confidence interval of 95%.
The questionnaire consisted of two parts. The first part contained
questions about the sociodemographic characteristics of the student,
including gender, marital and financial status, year of study in medical
school, siblings studying medicine, place of residency, living with
family, academic performance, and regret for studying medicine. The
second part consisted of the 33-item scale introduced by Schutte et al.
(1998), the Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test (SSEIT), in
which responses are measured via a 5-Likert scale ranging between
strongly disagree and strongly agree, scored from 1-5 respectively
(except for three questions that were reverse-scored) .
The SSEIT is the standard method used for measuring emotional
intelligence (EI), and consists of four sub-scales: emotion perception,
utilizing emotions, managing self-relevant emotions, and managing
others’ emotions. (12)
(13) (14).
The test has a reliability rating of 0.90 for the overall emotional
intelligence scale, which is reliable for both adults and adolescents;
utilizing the emotions sub-scale alone has shown poor reliability.
(15) (16)
The questionnaire used was in the Arabic language, and its validity and
reliability was confirmed through a previous study held in Al-Quds
University and using exploratory factor analysis; the factor loading for
all items exceeded 0.55 (0.59 to 0.78), and the Cronbach’s Alpha and
Guttman split-half coefficients were 0.81 and 0.80, respectively.
(17)
The EI score for each individual was calculated by adding the score
obtained from each answer in the questionnaire and dividing by 33,
giving a summary value with minimum of 1 and maximum of 5. Based on this
score, the respondents were ranked into three categories (low EI,
moderate EI, high EI), shown in Table 2.
(17)
Students were additionally categorized into levels defined according to
their academic year:
- Basic students: first- to third-year students (studying basic medical
sciences).
- Clinical students: fourth- to sixth-year, internship, and residency
students (different specialties and years)
Collected data were entered into Microsoft Excel 2013. Analysis was
performed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS),
version 20.0. Analyses used in the study are as follows:
- Descriptive statistics (frequency and percentage) for demographic
data.
- Means and standard deviations to answer the questions of the study.
- Comparison of means with t -test and one-way ANOVA.
- Pearson’s correlation to check validity.
- Cronbach’s alpha to confirm reliability of the questionnaire.