6seconds.org · 6 days ago

When College Students Practice Emotional Intelligence in Service of Others, Their Own Eq Increases

Eighty college students trained in emotional intelligence led a kindness festival for 400 second graders, and something measurable shifted in the leaders themselves. In a controlled study, those who actively practiced EQ (emotional intelligence) through service showed statistically significant growth in effectiveness and were protected from the wellbeing declines that affected their peers mid-semester, even though both groups attended the same event. The difference was the act of facilitating: managing groups of children, adapting when activities fell apart, working through uncertainty in real time. One student reflected, "To actually be working with emotions when sometimes that's not always allowed in a classroom… was just really empowering." The finding points to something universities can act on immediately -- that being needed, putting skills into practice in service of others, builds resilience at exactly the moment students are most vulnerable.