Investigating the interplay of trait emotional intelligence, empathy, and cultural intelligence among Chinese multilingual learners

This study investigates the interplay among trait emotional intelligence (EI), empathy, and cultural intelligence (CQ) in Chinese multilingual learners. Drawing on survey data from 327 participants across 18 provinces, we conducted correlation analysis and path analysis to examine how trait EI and empathy predict the four dimensions of CQ—metacognitive, cognitive, motivational, and behavioural. Results indicated that trait EI was a consistent and significant predictor of all four CQ dimensions, with the strongest effect on motivational CQ. Furthermore, empathy was significantly associated with metacognitive, motivational, and behavioural CQ, but not with cognitive CQ. Moreover, empathy partially mediated the association between trait EI and three CQ dimensions. This study highlights the role of empathy as an important emotional mediator via which trait EI exerts influence on metacognitive, motivational, and behavioural CQ, while showing that cognitive CQ works through a different pathway based on knowledge acquisition and uninfluenced by the emotional route. This study thus adds knowledge to the theory of cultural intelligence and gives insight into multilingual education.