Beyond emotion: social awareness as a key to wellbeing and reduced violence tendency in university students

This study examined the relationships among emotional intelligence, social awareness, violence tendency, and life satisfaction among university students, emphasizing the moderating role of social awareness. Data were collected from 304 Turkish university students (67.4% female, 32.6% male) using validated self-report instruments. Results indicated that emotional intelligence positively predicted life satisfaction and negatively predicted violence tendency. Social awareness was found to have a stronger negative association with violence tendency than emotional intelligence, whereas its direct effect on life satisfaction was nonsignificant. Moderation analyses further revealed that social awareness moderated the relationship between emotional intelligence and violence tendency, such that higher social awareness strengthened the negative association between emotional intelligence and violent behavior. These findings highlight the protective role of social awareness as a key social–emotional competence that may reduce violence and foster psychological well-being among university students.