Investigating the association between cognitive ability, leisure activity and emotional intelligence among an ethnically diverse student population from a medical university in Malaysia

Abstract

The young adult population, often classified as digital natives, have transformed their lifestyle and leisure activity to a large extent when compared to the digitally recluse generation, which suggestively can affect their overall emotional and cognitive development. Our present study, investigated the association between emotional intelligence and cognitive ability among university students engaging in four different types of leisure activity ie. group 1- students engaging in group based physical activities, group 2-students involved in self-engaging physical activity, group 3 were online gamers and group 4 were those with sedentary leisure habits. A total of 100 students were included in this study with 25 in each category. Based on the set criteria’s the subjects were classified into the four groups, following which EI-competency based questionnaire was administered. They participants then participated in a validated online gaming tool to tests their cognitive ability. The results showed no significant difference in EI between the four groups however, the group-3 showed better memory and group-4 displayed weak memory when compared to the rest. It was intriguing to observe that all the EI domains affected the spatial planning of their cognitive component. Finally, the Chinese student displayed better cognitive ability when compared to the rest.