Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence and Self-Esteem in Bachelor Students of Nursing and Midwifery Schools in Hamadan

Background: Emotional intelligence has a key role in the problems solving and decreasing of conflicts between thought and emotion. On the other hand, self-esteem and increasing of that from infancy to death has been considered as the most important psychosocial issue. Objectives: This study aimed to determine the relationship between emotional intelligence and self-esteem in bachelor students of nursing and midwifery schools in Hamadan University of Medical Sciences. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Hamadan University of medical sciences in Hamadan city in Iran at 2016. A three-part questionnaire was used for data collection, which is included demographic characteristics, Sharing emotional intelligence questionnaire and Cooper Smith self-esteem questionnaire. The Obtained data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 23) with descriptive statistics and Spearman correlation coefficient. Results: The most of studied subjects were female (68.9%) and single (86.8%) with mean age of 23 years and the standard deviation of 4.92. The results showed that the mean scores of emotional intelligence and self-esteem in studied students were 107.97 ± 11.34 and 34.11 ± 6.56, respectively, which was higher than the average level. Moreover, there was a direct and significant relationship between emotional intelligence and self-esteem as well as all of its sub-scales (P < 0.001). Conclusions: Since the people with high emotional intelligence can establish a reasonable balance between emotions and reason that are with strong self-esteem. However, it is recommended that several workshops should be held in order to promote emotional intelligence of students at the University.