SELF-CONTROL OUTWEIGH EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE IN PREDICTING DEVIANT BEHAVIOR AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Abstract

The increasing prevalence of deviant behavior among university students such as academic dishonesty, cyber-deviance, aggression, and substance use is a major concern in the field of higher education. This systematic review synthesizes the empirical literature on how emotional intelligence and self-control predict deviant behavior for university students. A total of 42 studies consisting of 28,674 participants were identified (PsycINFO, PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and ERIC; Jan 2010-Nov 2024). For all types of deviance, self-control was found to be a statistically significant, inversely related predictor with an effect size (r) ranging from -0.31 to -0.58 (median = -0.44), with all 42 studies demonstrating significant negative associations. Emotional intelligence was found to have an inverse relationship with deviance but with fewer association (median = -0.21), as only 72% of the studies demonstrated statistically significant negative associations. Among those studies, the combination of high emotional intelligence and low self-control produced greater levels of cyber-deviance and manipulative behavior, while self-control fully or partially mediated the relationship between emotional intelligence and deviance. Most of these studies (85.7%) were cross-sectional in nature and utilized self-report measures of deviance. Overall, self-control is a strong universal protective factor against deviance for university students; however, emotional intelligence has a lesser, contextual, and self-control mediated role. Therefore, universities should focus on developing self-control-based interventions, while future research should utilize longitudinal designs, standardized measures, and culturally diverse samples., the state's freedom of action is still constrained by the structure around it.