Effect of emotional intelligence and resilience on trauma coping among university students

Background Exposure to natural or manmade disasters is associated with long-term health consequences, including those for mental health. Trauma can be considered as the severe mental health outcome of such kinds of disasters. University students as an academic population can also be exposed to different types of disasters in their life. However, most students tend to remain within the academic society due to their coping capacities. It is possible that some students who are suffering from a trauma may not have been identified and that some may even have healed due to individual resilience. Participants and procedure This study investigated samples of German and Sri Lankan university students (N = 356), attempting to identify relationships between emotional intelligence and its impact on trauma compared with resilience capacities. A purposeful sampling method was used for data collection. Results and conclusions Independent sample t-test and hierarchical multiple regression analysis demonstrated that German students and Sri Lankan students used different levels of resilience capacity and emotional intelligence in their trauma coping.