The Mediating Role of Emotional Intelligence in the Relationship Between Spiritual Education and Critical Thinking of secondary high School Students

The purpose of this study was to investigate the mediating role of emotional intelligence in the relationship between spiritual education and the critical thinking among female students of secondary high schools in district 1 of Shiraz.The research was descriptive-correlational. The statistical population of this study included all female students of secondary high schools in district 1 of Shiraz, which were 9080 individuals during the 2024-2025 academic year. The sample size included 368 students, selected through cluster random sampling based on Krejcey-Morgan's table. Data were collected using three standardized questionnaires: the Critical Thinking Skills Questionnaire by Facione and Facione (1990), the Standardized Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire by Goleman (2001), and the Spiritual Education Questionnaire by Bayati et al. (2017). Face validity was confirmed by experts, and reliability was verified by calculating Cronbach's alpha coefficients of 0.86, 0.82, and 0.90, respectively. The collected data were statistically analyzed using SPSS and AMOS software through structural equation modeling. The results of the structural equation modeling indicated that the mediating role of emotional intelligence in the relationship between spiritual education and the critical thinking of female students of secondary high schools in district 1 of Shiraz is confirmed.