<![CDATA[This study was motivated by the continued presence of students who experience difficulties in recognizing and managing emotions, maintaining motivation, understanding others’ feelings, and developing social relationships. These conditions are also reflected in students’ social skills, as some students remain less active in cooperation, experience difficulties in expressing opinions, are not yet consistent in fulfilling responsibilities, show limited empathy, and have difficulties controlling themselves when dealing with problems with peers. This study aimed to describe students’ emotional intelligence, describe students’ social skills, and determine the relationship between emotional intelligence and social skills among students at SMPN 8 Bukittinggi. This study employed a quantitative approach with a correlational design. The population consisted of 285 students, with a sample of 166 students selected using proportionate stratified random sampling. Data were collected using an emotional intelligence questionnaire based on Daniel Goleman’s theory and a social skills questionnaire based on the theory of Gresham and Elliott. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, normality testing, linearity testing, and Pearson Product-Moment correlation with the assistance of IBM SPSS Statistics version 25. The results showed that students’ emotional intelligence was categorized as low, while their social skills were also categorized as low. The Pearson Product-Moment correlation test showed a significant relationship between emotional intelligence and students’ social skills, with a significance value of 0.000 < 0.05 and a correlation coefficient of r = 0.694. Thus, the higher the students’ emotional intelligence, the higher their social skills tend to be. These findings indicate a relationship between the two variables without implying that emotional intelligence causes changes in social skills.]]>
