Emotional intelligence and stress coping in dental undergraduates - a qualitative study

Objective: To explore how dental undergraduates with different levels of emotional intelligence (EI) cope with stress. Design: Qualitative unstructured depth interviews. Setting: A dental teaching hospital in the UK, 2002. Subjects and Methods: Subjects selected from the undergraduate population of a 5-year dental degree course. A questionnaire survey was carried out to determine the EI scores of the subjects. In each year of study, subjects were divided into low and high EI groups at the median score. From each EI group in each year, one male and one female subject were recruited. Data collection Unstructured face-to-face interviews. Data analysis Transcribing, sifting, indexing and charting data according to key themes. Results: 10 males and 10 females with low and high EI, representing all 5 years of study were interviewed. The experience of stress, expressed in emotional terms, ranged from anger and frustration to hatred. Four sets of coping strategies, adopted at varying degrees according to EI, were identified. High EI students were more likely to adopt reflection and appraisal, social and interpersonal, and organisation and time-management skills. Low EI students were more likely to engage in health-damaging behaviours. Conclusions: Future research needs to establish whether the enhancement of EI in dental students would lead to improved stress-coping, and better physical and psychological health.