In 2020, there were over 1,000 victims of sexual assault and family violence reported according to the Guam Police Department's Domestic Assault Response Team . Some believe an EQ education – an individual's emotional quotient - program could be the cure to decreasing these numbers.

In efforts to decrease the numbers of violence in Micronesia, The Pacific Judicial Council is collaborating with legislative and executive branches of government to create an EQ Education program. Dr. Neil Nedley has been commissioned to develop the program, and shared, "There's a pilot program that is going to be used within the next year, multiple grade levels. And then after that pilot program when we get all the feedback from that it should be available the year after that so it's getting close."

Not only will the EQ program be established in schools, but also be available to the community.

"We also will have community based programs available for adults and the non-school aspect of things that's normally an 8-week program - a 6-to-8 week program just once a week for 8 weeks where it takes only two hours a day of their time. For the more severe cases there are residential possibilities, as well."

According to Dr. Nedley's findings, culture does play a role in a person's EQ.

Our goal is to bring up the emotional intelligence of Micronesia and that will help all of the ships so to speak. And so it will help families, it will help our school system, it will help our medical institutions and it'll help our judicial systems and it'll help us make better decisions over all. So we are hoping that as we enhance the emotional intelligence we will have better family life."

Some daily practices known to increase an individual's EQ is getting 7 to 8 hours of sleep, getting aerobic exercise every day, being exposed to sunlight in the morning and eating more antioxidants.