Emotional Intelligence, Stress and Performance in Undergraduate Dental Students: A 22-Year, 19-Country Systematic...

To synthesise evidence on (i) average emotional-intelligence (EI) levels in undergraduate dental students worldwide and (ii) the strength of association between EI, mental stress and educational performance.

PubMed, Embase and Scopus were searched (1 Jan 2000-17 Apr 2025). Observational studies that used a validated EI instrument in undergraduate dental cohorts were eligible. Two reviewers independently screened, extracted data and applied the Joanna Briggs Institute risk-of-bias checklist. Random-effects meta-analyses are restricted to (a) mean Schutte EI scores and (b) Fisher-z-transformed correlations between EI and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) scores, representing a subset of the overall evidence base, with other EI tools and performance outcomes synthesised narratively.

Forty-seven cross-sectional studies (n = 10 233 students, 19 countries) met the criteria. The pooled mean EI from 19 cohorts (n = 3226) on the 33-item Schutte scale was 121.3 out of 165 (95% CI 119.5-123.1; I² < 0.01%), indicating comparable EI across regions. Eleven cohorts (n = 1512) contributed to the EI-stress meta-analysis: higher EI correlated inversely with perceived stress (pooled r = -0.29; 95% CI -0.38 to -0.20; I² = 14.6%). Qualitative mapping indicated that 21 of the 23 EI-performance comparisons, derived from 17 primary studies (n = 3186), demonstrated positive associations between EI scores and grades, clinical competence or patient-centred outcomes, whereas two comparisons found no relationship; no negative associations were observed. Although the direction of association was predominantly positive, these findings should be interpreted as a pattern across heterogeneous outcomes rather than a coherent quantitative effect.

Undergraduate dental students from 19 different countries display similar mid-range EI scores. Higher EI is modestly associated against perceived stress and tends to link with better academic and clinical performance, suggesting potential educational value of nurturing emotional competencies in dental curricula. However, it is important to highlight that the effects are modest and evidence is entirely cross-sectional, supporting EI as a promising but not yet decisive predictor. Future research should standardise ability-based EI measures, link EI to objective performance metrics and employ longitudinal designs to clarify causality.