Effects of emotional intelligence by university students majoring in hotel, foodservice, and tourism on creativity and problem solving abilities

This study aimed to suggest implications for enhancing creativity and problem-solving abilities by examining how the emotional intelligence of university students majoring in hotel, foodservice, and tourism influences problem-solving abilities through creativity. Based on previous research, emotional intelligence was divided into four sub-factors: self-emotion appraisal, others' emotion appraisal, use of emotion, and regulation of emotion. The relationships between these sub-factors, creativity, and problem-solving abilities were explored. A convenience sampling method was used to select 285 university students majoring in hotel, foodservice, and tourism from three universities located in Gyeonggi-do and Chungcheongnam-do. A questionnaire created using Google Forms was distributed via mobile phone, and 250 responses were collected. The collected data were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modeling with SPSS 29.0 and AMOS 23.0 programs. The results showed that all four sub-factors of emotional intelligence had significant effects on creativity. Additionally, it was found that creativity had a significant effect on problem-solving abilities. This study is theoretically significant in that it expands the scope of previous research by empirically verifying the relationships between emotional intelligence, creativity, and problem-solving abilities. Practically, it suggests that universities should provide leadership education, creative activities, psychological counseling, club activities, and interpersonal skill improvement programs to promote the understanding of emotions in both oneself and others. Furthermore, it indicates that creative teaching methods and conducive teaching environments are necessary to enhance the creativity of university students.