From Empathy to Resilience: The Mediating Role of Emotional Intelligence.

Research has shown that empathy and emotional intelligence are two predictive factors associated with positive adaptation and resilience in emerging adulthood. However, it has not been well investigated how these two factors interact to link resilience. Based on previous research showing that empathy requires the development of emotional perceptiveness, that resilience is closely related to adaptive processes, and that emotional intelligence mediates the relation between emotional perceptiveness and adaptive processes, the present study hypothesized that emotional intelligence has a potential mediating role in the association between empathy and resilience. Data were collected from 788 college students (429 females and 359 males) at a university in China. Resilience was measured by the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). Empathy was measured by the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI). Emotional Intelligence was measured by the Emotional Intelligence Scale (EIS). The results showed that empathy significantly predicted resilience, and emotional intelligence fully mediated the association between empathy and resilience. These findings suggest that the cognitive ability to perceive, evaluate, and regulate emotions plays an important role in the resilience in emerging adults. Implications of cognitive approaches to resilience research in emerging adulthood are discussed.

Nighttime Sleep Awakening Frequency and Its Consistency Predict Future Academic Performance in College Students.

Although the relationship between sleep and academic performance has been extensively examined, how sleep predicts future academic performance (e.g., 2-3 years) remains to be further investigated. Using wearable smartwatches and a self-report questionnaire, we tracked sleep activities of 45 college students over a period of approximately half a month to see whether their sleep activities predicted their academic performance, which was estimated by grade point average (GPA). Results showed that both nighttime sleep awakening frequency and its consistency in the tracking period were not significantly correlated with the GPA for the courses taken in the sleep tracking semester (current GPA). However, both nighttime sleep awakening frequency and its consistency inversely predicted the GPA for the rest of the courses taken after that semester (future GPA). Moreover, students with more difficulty staying awake throughout the day obtained lower current and future GPAs, and students with higher inconsistency of sleep quality obtained lower future GPA. Together, these findings highlight the importance of nighttime sleep awakening frequency and consistency in predicting future academic performance, and emphasize the necessity of assessing the consistency of sleep measures in future studies.