The role of trait emotional intelligence in academic performance during the university transition: An integrative model of mediation via social support, coping, and adjustment

• We tested models linking TEI with achievement during the university transition.
• Direct links and indirect links via coping, social support, and adjustment were posited.
• TEI directly predicted engagement coping and social support.
• TEI indirectly predicted adjustment via engagement coping and social support.
• TEI indirectly predicted achievement via engagement coping and adjustment linked serially.

The authors propose conceptual models linking trait emotional intelligence (TEI) with achievement both directly and indirectly via perceived social support (PSS), engagement coping (EC), and adjustment, in the context of the university transition. The models were tested in a multiwave design with a sample of incoming Australian undergraduates (N = 470). In structural equation analyses, TEI was found to be a direct predictor of higher PSS and the greater use of EC strategies. Further, mediation analyses revealed that TEI was indirectly associated with academic adjustment via EC and psychological adjustment via EC and PSS operating in parallel. TEI was also found to be indirectly associated with achievement via EC and academic adjustment linked serially in a three-path mediated sequence. These direct and indirect relations were robust when controlling for known confounding influences. The empirically supported mediating processes extend the literature by elucidating some of the pathways through which TEI is linked with better adjustment and achievement.