| Middle school is a crucial period in the development of adolescents,during which their relationships shift away from their parents and towards friendships with peers.Research has shown that individuals with high emotional intelligence have higher quality friendships,however,in the process of interacting with peers,they are more or less likely to have various conflicts and clashes.Therefore,the ability of friends to resolve conflicts effectively and to empathise and forgive each other plays an important role in maintaining friendships.Therefore,this study aims to investigate the relationship between emotional intelligence and friendship quality,and to explore the internal mechanisms of empathy and forgiveness as mediating variables.This study used the Emotional Intelligence Scale,the Basic Empathy Scale,the Forgiveness Scale and the Friendship Quality Questionnaire to survey 938 students from the first to the third year in three secondary schools in Zhongwei City,and 787 valid questionnaires were returned.SPSS 23.0 was used to analyse the data and the results were as follows.(1)On the whole,the quality of emotional intelligence,empathy,forgiveness and friendship of junior high school students were all at a moderate to high level.(2)There is a significant positive relationship between the two pairs of emotional intelligence,empathy,forgiveness and friendship quality among junior high school students.(3)Emotional intelligence can directly and positively predict the friendship quality of junior high school students,and can also influence friendship quality through the mediating effects of empathy and forgiveness respectively.Based on the above results,the following conclusions were obtained: junior high school students possess higher emotional intelligence,empathy,forgiveness and friendship quality;emotional intelligence can influence friendship quality through empathy and emotional intelligence can also influence friendship quality through forgiveness.Combining the findings of the study,educational recommendations can be made to improve the emotional intelligence,empathy and forgiveness of junior high school students from three perspectives: family,school and society,thereby enhancing the quality of their friendships and psychological well-being. |
