Nurturing Tomorrow's Leaders: Exploring Emotional Intelligence's Influence on Career Adaptability with Resilience as a Mediating Variable

Abstract

Adolescence is a critical period in acquiring a vocational identity. During this period, adolescents who experience a crisis related to their vocational identity need to make decisions that allow them to successfully navigate their vocational development and climb the steps toward becoming future leaders by making informed decisions. Thus, the current study aims to investigate the mediating role of psychological resilience in the relationship between adolescents’ emotional intelligence (EI) and career adaptability, with 580 adolescents voluntarily participating in the study. Mediation analyses were conducted to test EI's indirect effect on career adaptability through resilience. According to our findings, resilience serves as a mediating variable between EI and career adaptability. The findings from our study provide essential practical insights for career counselors working with adolescents. As our findings indicate, practitioners can be more successful at enhancing career adaptability by adopting an approach that focuses on increasing EI and resilience skills.