Emotional intelligence and academic achievement among Ethiopian university students: The mediating role of meta-cognition and moderating role of academic resilience

Background This study examined whether meta-cognition mediates the relationship between emotional intelligence and academic achievement, and whether academic resilience moderates this mediated pathway, among Ethiopian graduating university students. Methods A cross-sectional sample of 503 graduating students from two Ethiopian universities completed measures of emotional intelligence, meta-cognition, and academic resilience. Academic achievement was obtained from official university records (CGPA). Moderated mediation analysis was conducted using PROCESS Model 59 (Hayes, 2022) with 5000 bootstrap resamples. Results Emotional intelligence was positively correlated with meta-cognition, academic resilience, and academic achievement. Meta-cognition partially mediated the emotional intelligence–achievement relationship. Academic resilience moderated the emotional intelligence–meta-cognition pathway, with the conditional effect of emotional intelligence on meta-cognition significant at moderate and high resilience levels, but not at low resilience. The conditional indirect effect was significant only at moderate resilience. A compensatory pattern emerged: meta-cognition most strongly predicted academic achievement among low-resilience students. Conclusions Meta-cognition explains how emotional intelligence translates into academic achievement, but this pathway is most relevant for students with moderate resilience. For low-resilience students, meta-cognition serves as a compensatory mechanism; for high-resilience students, alternative pathways take precedence. Interventions targeting emotional intelligence, meta-cognitive skills, and academic resilience simultaneously may benefit Ethiopian graduating students facing national exit examinations.