Personality and Emotional Intelligence among Health Professions Students: the Roles of Perceived Group Cohesion, Perceived Team Emotional Intelligence, and Attitudes Toward Interprofessional Education

Emotional intelligence (EI) is a cornerstone of effective teamwork in healthcare, yet the factors associated with it within interprofessional education (IPE) remain underexplored. This study constructs and validates a moderated chain mediation model to elucidate how personality traits, perceived group cohesion (GC), perceived team emotional intelligence (TEI), and individual EI interrelate across individual and team levels in IPE settings. It investigates how personality traits relate to team dynamics and how these dynamics, moderated by attitudes toward IPE (ATIPE), are linked to individual EI. A cross-sectional study was conducted in February 2025 with 344 health professions students (Mage = 21.3 years; 187 females) from four universities in Hong Kong, mainland China, and the United Kingdom, representing seven disciplines (e.g., medicine, nursing, Chinese medicine). Participants completed a three-week IPE course in randomly assigned teams. Data on demographics, personality traits, GC, TEI, EI, and ATIPE were collected via validated questionnaires. Confirmatory factor analysis ensured measurement validity, while descriptive statistics, correlational analysis, and PROCESS Models 6 and 91 tested mediation and moderation models. Agreeableness and openness were significantly and indirectly associated with individual EI through GC and TEI (Bagreeableness−EI model = 0.021, 95