Investigation of the relationship between emotional intelligence (EQ) and sensory processing skills of occupational therapy students

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between emotional intelligence and sensory processing of occupational therapy students. Five prior knowledge questions, AASP Questionnaire and EQES were applied to occupational therapy students participating in the study. The majority of the study consisted of female participants. According to the results of the study, it was seen that the occupational therapy students participating in the study had a low level of self-motivation and emotional self-management skills, which are the EQES sub-dimensions. When the AASP results were examined, it was concluded that the participants were different from most people at a rate of 42.5% in the low registration category, 23.9% in the sensory seeking category, 49.6% in the sensory sensitivity category and 45.1% in the sensory avoidance category. A statistically significant negative correlation was found between the participants low registration score of AASP and the emotional self-managing (p<0.05), self-motivation (p<0.05) score. A statistically significant positive correlation was found between the participants sensory seeking score of AASP and EQES total score (p<0,01), emotional self-awareness (p<0,01), empathy (p<0,05), emotional managing the others (p<0,01) score. A statistically significant positive correlation was found between the participants sensory avoidance score of AASP and empathy (p<0,05) score. There was no statistically significant relationship between the participants sensory sensitivity score of AASP and EQES total score and also any sub-dimension scores of the scale. The results of the study revealed that there is a significant relationship between the sensory profile and emotional intelligence skills of occupational therapy students and that these two individual characteristics can affect each other. This is the first study in our country to examine the emotional intelligence skills and sensory processes of occupational therapy students. Keywords: Emotional Intelligence, Occupational Therapy, Sensory Processing.