Building a healthy lifestyle: the role of Emotional Intelligence among Italian university students
Description
The dataset was used in a cross-sectional study aimed to examine the relationship between EI and selected unhealthy lifestyles, namely alcohol consumption, tobacco use and breakfast among undergraduate university students in Southern Italy. This study took place between the 13th and 28th of February 2023 in a representative sample of the Italian university student of one public university of the Calabria Region. The information is collected through an online questionnaire that is filled in by respondents. The online survey was sent via institutional email. An anonymous and structured questionnaire was used, comprising of four sections. The first section of the questionnaire contained 4 questions to explore demographic characteristics (i.e. gender, age, marital status and degree course) and 1 question about any chronic disease. The EI was measured by the Trait Meta-Mood Scale (TMMS) in the second section. The third section investigated tobacco use asking participants if they had smoked at least 100 cigarettes during their lifetime and, among those, the quantity of cigarettes smoked (i.e. daily, someday or not at all). The individuals were classified as non-smokers, former smokers, occasional smokers, or daily smokers, according to CDC definitions All those identified as daily and occasional smokers (current smokers) were directed to complete the Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND), a 6-items questionnaire for assessing the compulsion to use and physical nicotine dependence. The fourth section explored unhealthy alcohol consumption. The Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT), a 10-items screening tool, was used to screen for risky or hazardous alcohol consumption. Lastly, the item “How many days a week do you eat breakfast?” was used to assess breakfast skipping. The response options available ranged from 0 to 7 days a week.