Emotional intelligence and emotional expression as predictors of depression in university students

The purpose of this study is to determine whether the level of depression in university students as predicted by emotional intelligence and emotional expression. For this reason, whether the depression level differs according to some demographic variables and whether there is a relationship between depression level, emotional intelligence and emotional expression is examined. The participants of the study consisted of 370 university students studying at Biruni University. The Personal Information Form, which was prepared by the researcher and asked the gender, number of siblings, the status of the parents together or separately, the level of the faculty and the class was applied to the participants. Also, Beck Depression Scale, Emotional Intelligence Scale (TEIQue-SF) Short Form and Emotional Expression Scale was applied. In the results of the study, it was determined that depression, gender, number of siblings, parental status or separation were not significantly different between faculty and class levels. The results of the analysis of depression and emotional intelligence showed that the levels of emotional well-being, self-control, sentimentality and sociability, which are the sub-dimensions of emotional intelligence, were significantly correlated with depression levels. In addition, it was found that total emotional intelligence scores of the students and subjective well-being from the sub-dimensions of emotional intelligence and self-control scores significantly predicted depression levels in a negative direction. While emotional sub-dimension of emotional intelligence could not predict depression, it was found that sociability subscale significantly predicted depression level statistically. In the results of the analysis of depression and emotion expression, it was concluded that positive emotion expression levels and proximity expression levels which are sub-dimensions of emotion expression were significantly related to depression levels and statistically negative negatively. In addition, it was found that there was a statistically significant positive relationship between depression levels and negative emotion levels. At the same time, it was determined that the level of affinity, which is the sub-dimension of expressing emotions, and the levels of positive emotion expression significantly predict depression levels in terms of statistical significance. While the students' levels of expressing emotions significantly predicted depression significantly in terms of depression, it was found that negative emotion expression levels which are sub-dimensions of emotion expression did not predict depression statistically significant. Key words: Depression, emotion, emotional intelligence, emotional expression