Reflecting Emotional Intelligence: How Mindsets Navigate Academic Engagement and Burnout Among College Students

Abstract

Despite the growing recognition of emotional intelligence (EI) and its significant associations with academic outcomes, less is known about the underlying mechanisms through which EI mindsets affect academic engagement and burnout. Drawing on regulatory focus theory and social comparison theory, this study aims to reveal how different types of EI mindsets influence college students’ academic engagement and burnout through regulatory focus (i.e., promotion and prevention focus) and further examines the moderating role of performance-prove goal orientation—defined as the motivation to demonstrate competence and outperform others—in these pathways. To test these associations, we conducted two studies. A scenario experiment (Study 1) indicates that a growth mindset of EI (GMOE) has the potential to enhance academic engagement while reducing academic burnout, whereas a fixed mindset of EI (FMOE) exhibits the opposite pattern. Study 2, based on three-wave data, demonstrates that GMOE is positively associated with academic engagement and negatively associated with academic burnout via promotion focus, whereas FMOE is positively associated with academic burnout and negatively associated with academic engagement through prevention focus. Of note, performance-prove goal orientation moderates these pathways: Individuals with higher levels of performance-prove goal orientation exhibit a weakened indirect effect of GMOE on academic engagement via promotion focus, whereas those with lower levels of performance-prove goal orientation display a strengthened version of this pathway. Conversely, the indirect effect of FMOE on academic burnout through prevention focus is stronger when performance-prove goal orientation is high and weaker when it is low. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.