Abstract Adolescents’ interpersonal adaptability is concerned when they are required to deal with all kinds of relationships. How to improve their interpersonal adaptation ability becomes one of the foci of the research contents in areas of adolescent development. Although a number of researchers have provided empirical evidence to support the idea that adolescents’ parental support could positively predict their social adaptation. Interpersonal adaptation is an important dimension of social adaptation. But until now, little is known about how college students’ parental support influences their interpersonal adaptability. In addition, drawing from the definition of emotional intelligence, emotional intelligence is also closely related to the individual social adaptation. Hence, in the current study, we further hypothesize that parents’ support promotes interpersonal adaptation is mediated by emotional intelligence. The present study aimed at exploring the influence mechanism of the college students’ parental support on the development of their interpersonal adaptation. Otherwise, another goal was to demonstrate the characteristics of college students’ interpersonal adaptation. Using the random sampling method, 223 college students who grade from freshman year to postgraduate period were selected to fill questionnaires of emotional intelligence scale (EIS), parental support scale and interpersonal adaptability scale for college students. All scales were well-established in the literature. SPSS 21.0 and LISERL 8.7 were adopted to perform a series of statistical analyses. The results indicated that: (1) Correlation results indicated there was a significant correlation between parental support and interpersonal adaptation. Canonical correlation results indicated significant relationships among parental enhancement of worth and interpersonal interaction. (2) The correlation between college students' and college students' emotional intelligence and their interpersonal adaptation was moderate，especially the correlation between their apperceive sentiment and interpersonal recognition ability. (3) Regression analysis indicated that college students’ parental support could positively predicted their interpersonal adaptation (β=.383, t=6.161, p<.001), and students’ parental support could positively predicted their emotional intelligence (β=.365, t=17.083, p<.001). College students' emotional intelligence partly mediated the relationship between their parental support and interpersonal adaptation．Effect size index supported the mediation effect (effect size = 51.30%). Therefore, we concluded that college students' emotional intelligence has a significant mediating effect on their parental support and interpersonal adaptation. To our knowledge, this study expands upon the growing body of research related to the relationship between college students’ parental support and interpersonal adaptation by understanding the mechanisms. The results could contribute the interpersonal adaptation cultivation for college students. However, the limitation of the current study could not be ignored. First, peer support which also influences college students’ interpersonal adaptability is an important dimension of social support. It should be considered in the future study. Second, interpersonal adaptation is complicated. Interpersonal recognition ability and interpersonal interaction could not fully explain it. These issues should be taken good care of in the future studies.