Trait emotional intelligence, the Big Five personality dimensions and academic success in physical education teacher candidates

The predictive ability of the Big Five personality traits and trait emotional intelligence (EI) of physical education (PE) teacher candidates’ academic success was examined. A total of 295 PE teacher candidates aged 23 to 32 completed the Short Form Five Factor Personality Inventory (Tatar, 2005) and the revised and adapted Schutte Emotional Intelligence Scale (Schutte et al., 1998) at the beginning of the 2007-2008 academic year. At the year’s end, participants’ grade point averages (GPAs) were matched to their trait EI and personality scores. Pearson product-moment correlations and hierarchical regression were used to analyze data. Academic success as GPA was found to be positively related with Openness to Experience and Conscientiousness and negatively related with Neuroticism. Additionally, a regression model consisting of the Big Five personality traits could predict a significant amount of variance in GPA. However, no association was identified between trait EI as measured by the Schutte Emotional Intelligence Scale and GPA. Trait EI also did not make any significant contribution to the predictive ability of the Big Five personality traits.