Association between teachers’ resilience and emotional intelligence during the COVID-19 outbreak

Abstract

Introduction/Objective: The resilience and emotional intelligence of teachers are crucial in order to face the daily educational challenges. To determine the association between teacher’s emotional intelligence and resilience during Emergency Remote Learning. Method: A quantitative approach and a cross-sectional predictive non-experimental design were used. Participants were 1329 teachers from Chilean schools. The WLEIS Emotional Intelligence Scale and the RS-14 resilience scale were used. Spearman correlation analyses and Yuen’s test were used for the comparative analysis by sex, and in the case of comparison by specialty the one-way ANOVA test was used; multiple regressions were performed. Results: High levels of resilience and between medium to high emotional intelligence; significant, positive and high relationship between emotional intelligence and resilience. Both in the emotional regulation variable and in the emotional intelligence variable significant differences were found regarding sex and specialty. The results of the predictive model with all emotional intelligence variables as predictors explained 43.5% of the observed variability of resilience. Conclusion: During the pandemic, teachers’ emotional intelligence and resilience are essential for facing the educational adversities and challenges that arise as a consequence of a context susceptible to constant and deregulatory change.