Research Initiation: Evaluating the Impact of a Wellness Program on Emotional Intelligence and Psychological Capital of Engineering Students

University Of California-Davis, Davis CA

Investigators

Abstract

Engineering programs are known to be rigorous, with high expectations and workload. As a result, poor self-care habits might be perceived as part of the engineering identity, where rigor, stress, and suffering are considered norms of being an engineer. This perception has been studied by scientists, and literature data suggests that undergraduate engineering students are less likely to seek help when suffering from a mental illness when compared to non-engineering students. Consequently, a considerable number of higher education institutions have developed and offered a variety of wellness programs. However, engineering students are less likely to utilize such resources due to their high workload and the stigma associated with engineering identity. Prioritizing self-care activities over coursework can be seen as violating a cultural norm within the engineering discipline. Nevertheless, good mental and emotional health and self-care practices are essential not only for academic success, but also for a successful practice of the engineering profession. Most engineers’ time will be spent on interaction with a diverse range of people to define goals and make decisions where personal biases, cultural background, and emotions are involved. Not surprisingly, the starting point for effective engineering practice is to learn how to control one’s emotions and take care of one’s physical and overall well-being in order to be able to guide, give advice, and inspire others. This project has the objective of developing and delivering a wellness course for engineering students, where participants will allocate time with their peers and faculty to discuss and practice self-care activities and gain training in how to care about their overall wellness. Additionally, the project will measure the impact of the course on students’ emotional intelligence and psychological capital. This is aligned with NSF mission to expand knowledge in engineering education research. More specifically, it will equip students with skills required by 21st century engineers such as communication, resilience, emotional and stress control, among others. Each lecture/activity of the wellness course was designed to focus on a self-care domain (cognitive, emotional, interpersonal, physical, practical, and spiritual). It is hypothesized that the class will increase students’ resilience, optimism, hope, self-efficacy, emotionality, self-control, wellbeing, and sociability. Data will be collected to address the following research questions: 1) What is the level of emotional intelligence (EI) and psychological capital (PsyCap) among engineering students? 2) Does the wellness course significantly impact students’ emotional intelligence, and psychological capital? To answer the research questions, the project will survey undergraduate engineering students about their emotional intelligence and psychological capital by using the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire - Short Form (TEIQue-SF) and the Psychological Capital questionnaire, respectively. TEIQue-SF is divided into four sub-dimensions (emotional, self-control, well-being, and sociability) while Psychological Capital is divided into self-efficacy, optimism, hope, and resiliency to measure an individual’s strength towards each of these characteristics. Additionally, students will be surveyed to identify their personality profile by using the Big Five Inventory questionnaire. Students will be surveyed at the beginning and the end of each academic term. Furthermore, students will be asked to self-report whether they participated in the wellness course. The survey will be distributed to two different control groups: (i) students who did not participate in the course and (ii) students who participated in a short-term wellness assignment in a mandatory core chemical engineering class. The results of the quantitative surveys will be complemented with a qualitative interview. The project will provide useful insight for other engineering departments interested in improving student well-being through integration of training on mental health and self-care. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.