Emotional Intelligence and Coping with Daily Stress in the Academic/Work Environment

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the emotional dimension: its positive aspect and emotional regulation, as well as its negative internalized symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression. This study’s objective was to evaluate these emotional aspects and the most commonly employed strategies for coping with daily stress and facing conflicts in the academic/work environment in a sample of university students. For this, a cross-sectional quantitative design was used. Instruments were administered to evaluate these constructs, whose interrelationships were made known, by pointing out the importance of designing programs for providing training on coping, that focused on emotions in the university environment.

1. Introduction

Coping is defined by Lazarus and Folkman [1] as “constantly changing cognitive and behavioral efforts to manage specific external and/or internal demands, that are appraised as taxing or exceeding the resources of the person.”

In a recent systematic review, González Moreno and Molero [2], examined the various coping strategies used in the face of social conflicts and found that seeking social support was the most appropriate strategy for coping with daily stress. Similarly, other studies such as Rodriguez et al. [3] found that social support and problem solving were among the adequate coping strategies employed. Likewise, Coban [4] found that problem solving and social support were functional coping strategies employed by Turkish students.

The use of productive or functional coping strategies is associated with higher levels of psychological adjustment [5, 6, 7].

The university environment is one of the areas that can generate more stress among young people [8, 9, 10], especially during the pandemic [6]. Hernández de la Hera et al. [8], in the research led by Dr. Morales, evaluated a sample of a total of 276 university students averaging 19.92 years old, most of them female, that were given tools to evaluate mathematic anxiety, attitude toward mathematics, general self-efficacy and attitudes toward statistics: (1) scale of attitude toward mathematics [11]; (2) scale of attitude toward statistics [11]; (3) scale for assessing math anxiety in secondary education (SAMAS) [12]; (4) general self-efficacy scale (EAG) [13, 14]. They found that anxiety (be it anxiety before the exams or anxiety toward learning mathematics and statistics in general) was predictive of the variable attitudes toward mathematics and statistics. Using an artificial intelligence-based analysis with the creation of an artificial neural network, it was also found that the general self-efficacy variable had a positive impact on the dependent variable attitudes toward mathematics and the variable attitudes toward statistics. The same results were also obtained for the sample of secondary education students who took part in this study.

Another study was carried out in the same year by Martínez et al. [9], where a sample composed of 290 participants took part. This study had the aim of examining the possible relations that existed between the variables self-esteem, stress levels, resilience, and coping skills by using an artificial intelligence-based model with instruments such as (1) ad hoc sociodemographic questionnaire; (2) Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale designed by Rosenberg [15], (3) Spanish version of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) [16, 17]; and (4) Brief Resilient Coping Scale [18]. It designed an algorithm capable of predicting self-esteem levels based on the variables of resilience, coping mechanisms, and other sociodemographic variables. In this study, which used an ex post facto design, the findings were that both the perceived levels of stress and resilience were variables with predictive ability over the self-esteem variable. This leads us to consider the importance of training in healthy coping strategies in early childhood education [19].

Other previous studies have also shown that the academic context can be one of the contexts that generate stress and anxiety in university students [20]. Morales and Morales-Rodríguez [20] assessed anxiety levels in a sample of 203 university students from the Faculties of Psychology and the Faculty of Education Science, most of them female, who were given a State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) [21, 22] as an instrument, in which they found that fourth-year undergraduate students had higher levels of anxiety compared to students in lower years, although they did not find statistically significant differences in anxiety levels according to gender.

The following is an analysis of two recent studies which show that in order to promote adequate psychological adjustment and social and academic adaptation, it is necessary for psychoeducational intervention programs to include variables such as the promotion of resilience and the appropriate use of stress coping mechanisms that allow for adequate emotional management in university students and future teachers to avoid situations of burnout and maladjustment [23, 24].

Moreno-Lucas [23] in a sample of 401 participants of whom the majority (70.6%) were women, were given an instrument to assess burnout (Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI)) [25], Spanish version by Salanova et al. [26], and another to assess resilient coping (Brief Resilience Coping Scale (BRCS), scale by Sinclair et al. [27] and adapted to Spanish [28]). It was found that the resilience variable correlated inversely with variables such as emotional exhaustion and stress in this sample of participants. Along the same lines, Martínez-Ramón et al. [23] carried out a study in which they demonstrated the need to take into account the effects of variables such as gender when assessing these dimensions and found statistically significant differences in the variable emotional exhaustion according to gender. Specifically, in this study [23], higher scores were found in the emotional exhaustion variable in women compared to men.

Another research was carried out by Morales [29], in which a sample of subjects participated with the main objective of examining whether there were relationships between the coping strategies variable and other constructs such as emotional intelligence and social skills variables. For this purpose, after the corresponding request from the Ethics Committee of the institution, the following instruments were used: (1) Social Skills Questionnaire by Torbay, Munoz de Bustillo, and Hernández [30]; (2) Multidimensional Self-Concept Scale (AF-5) by García and Musitu [31]; (3) Coping Scale (CS) by Morales et al. [32], and (4) Trait Meta-Mood Scale (TMMS-24) [33] to assess emotional intelligence adapted by Fernández-Berrocal et al. [34]. In this study [29], the following most relevant results were found: (a) the existence of statistically significant relationships between the functional coping strategies variable and the emotional intelligence variable; (b) statistically significant correlations between the productive coping strategies variable and the social skills construct; and (c) statistically significant correlations between effective or adaptive coping strategies and the academic self-concept variable in the sample of participants in this study. Also, direct positive effects were found for some of the dimensions of the self-concept variable and the social skills variable on strategies considered as productive coping strategies, such as the “information seeking” strategy. This study [29] already indicated the importance of continuing with studies that are increasingly emerging in which mindfulness is taken into account in some way with the appropriate self-knowledge and management of emotions.

Precisely, as indicated at the end of the previous paragraph, it is of interest to focus on some of the studies that deal with the possible relationships between emotional skills and mindfulness. In the work of Moscoso [35], it is shown that emotional intelligence mediates between mindfulness and the increase of positive emotions, with the benefits that this entails for people’s well-being. It is also indicated in this review [35] of literature in Educational Sciences and Psychology that the practice of mindfulness can contribute to the improvement of people’s emotional skills. We are referring to the term mindfulness as “the practice of intentionally focusing attention on the present moment without making value judgements” (Kabat-Zinn [36], cited in Moscoso [35]). Moscoso and Legancher [37] also point out in this review of scientific literature that in mindfulness, two components can be distinguished that are involved in some way in the process of emotional regulation and changes in the individual’s perception, such as the following elements:

1. Minimizing value judgments;

2. Self-regulating attention in the present moment.

Moscoso [35] also states in this literature review that it is the “sustaining of attention” in the emotions and thoughts of the experience of the present moment, an important aspect from a model centered on mindfulness, that influences the regulation of emotions.

Along these lines, research by Teal et al. [38] also shows that both mindfulness and emotional intelligence are constructs that tend to be present in one way or another in programs to improve people’s well-being. Specifically, in their research [38], they examined the relationships between emotional intelligence, dispositional mindfulness, and well-being in a sample of 294 individuals aged between 13 and 17 years who were administered the following assessment instruments:

1. The SUEIT-A/the Adolescent Swinburne University Emotional Intelligence Scale (SUEIT-A) instrument by Luebbers et al. [39] consists of four subscales for the assessment of emotional intelligence: (a) Emotional Management and Control, (b) Emotions Direct Cognition, (c) Understanding the Emotions of Others, and (d) Emotional Recognition and Expression.

2. Lyubomirsky and Lepper’s SHS instrument, the Subjective Happiness Scale [40] to assess the Happiness construct. It is a scale with adequate psychometric properties of reliability and validity.

3. The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) by Goldberg and Hillier [41] for the assessment of Psychological distress.

4. The Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale for Adolescents (MAAS-A) by Brown et al. [42].

In this study [38], statistically significant positive correlations between the dispositional mindfulness variable and the subjective happiness variable were found. In contrast, the results of this study [38] showed statistically significant inverse correlations between the dispositional mindfulness variable and the psychological distress variable. This result, as also shown in this study, is congruent with other previous research in which negative correlations are also found between dispositional mindfulness and mood disorders such as anxiety and depression [43]. Similarly, another study [44] focused on investigating how adaptive emotion regulation and mindfulness might affect adjustment to stressful situations in the transition to university in a sample of 158 undergraduate students at the University of Connecticut, 80% of whom were female and who completed online surveys at the beginning and end of their first semester. Specifically, they completed the Cognitive and Affective Mindfulness Scale-Revised (CAMS-R) from [45], The Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) from [46], The Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scales (DASS-21) from [47], and The FACIT-Sp-Non-Illness version [48, 49] which allows for the assessment of Spiritual well-being, finding statistically significant positive correlations between the adaptive regulation of emotions and the well-being variable.

In the work of Azpiazu et al. [50], the relationships between social support and emotional intelligence were studied in a large sample of 1543 subjects aged between 11 and 18 years, 52.81% of whom were female, using as instruments the Teacher and Classmate Support Scale of the Health Behavior in School-aged Children by Torsheim et al. [51]; the Trait Meta-Mood Scale-24 (TMMS-24) emotional intelligence scale, which is the same as the one used in our study and was adapted by Fernández-Berrocal et al. [52]; and another instrument to assess social support, the Family and Friends Support Questionnaire (AFA), by González and Landero [53]. In this study [50], the social support variable was found to be a relevant variable with predictive capacity for the emotional intelligence variable in both the sample of women and the sample of men. Specifically, in the sample of men, the results showed that emotional support was one of the variables with the highest predictive capacity for adequate emotional regulation, while support from friends was the factor with the highest predictive capacity on the dimensions of the emotional intelligence construct called the clarity of feelings and emotional attention in the sample of men.

Conversely, in the female sample, the results of this study [50] show that family support is the variable that most predicts emotional clarity and emotional regulation, while peer support such as friends is the one that most predicts the subdimension of emotional intelligence construct called emotional attention. Thus, the importance of the main agent of primary socialization, the family, and the main agent of secondary socialization, the school, is evident in this study.

Precisely, the present study’s aim was to evaluate the coping strategies used by a sample of university students to deal with conflicts in the academic/work environment, and its possible relationship with the emotional intelligence variable.

2. Methods

2.1 Participants

The participants were 73 university students. The majority were women between the ages of 18 and 24 years.

2.2 Instruments

Coping Strategies Inventory (CSI) [54]; adaptation in Spanish Cano-García et al. [55].

It is a scale consisting of 40 items with a Likert-type response format. It has adequate psychometric properties of reliability and validity, with its α ranging from 0.75 to 0.88. An example of an instrument item is: “I coped with the problem.”

Trait Meta-Mood Scale (TMM-24); Fernández-Berrocal et al. [56] for the assessment of emotional intelligence. It consists of 24 items with a five-step Likert-type response format. It has adequate psychometric properties (α = 0.90). An example of this scale’s item is: “I pay a lot of attention to feelings.”

2.3 Procedure

The questionnaires were administered collectively in the different classrooms. This study received a favorable report from the University of Granada’s Ethics Committee in Human Sciences. Anonymity and confidentiality of the information were guaranteed after obtaining the consent of the study’s participants.

2.4 Data design and analysis

A quantitative design was used. Descriptive analyses and bivariate correlation analyses were performed to analyze the relationship between the variables.

3. Results

With respect to the results, it can be highlighted when the students were specifically asked about a problem in their academic or work environment, and their most used coping strategies were: solving the problem and seeking social support. Specifically, for the active solution strategy, the mean was 15.47, and standard deviation was 3.37; for social support, the mean was 15.37, and standard deviation was 3.59; for emotional expression, the mean was 13.7 and standard deviation was 4.24; for self-criticism, the mean was 12.46 and standard deviation 3.9; for cognitive restructuring, the mean was 13.68 and standard deviation 3.77; for problem avoidance, the mean was 10.94 and standard deviation 4.33; and finally for social withdrawal, the mean was 11.15 and standard deviation 3.67.

Regarding the relationship between the study variables, it can be highlighted that statistically significant positive correlations were found between the total scores in the use of coping strategies in the face of work-related problems and the emotional intelligence variable in this sample of university students (r = .47, p < .01).

4. Discussion and conclusions

This study’s aim was to evaluate the strategies most frequently used in the work/academic environment by university students for coping with daily stress. Likewise, the relationships between the variables, strategies for coping with stress in the face of work or academic conflicts, and emotional intelligence were analyzed.

When faced with a problem in the academic and/or work environment, problem solving, and social support were the coping strategies most frequently employed by the present sample.

These are coping strategies considered a priori as productive or functional [32]. Likewise, another study [57] found that the problem-solving strategy is one of the most commonly used coping strategies in certain situations of daily stress.

The results show the existence of statistically significant associations between the total scores of the various coping strategies for academic/work stress and emotional intelligence. This result can be considered congruent with other previous studies that highlight the importance of emotional intelligence, given its possible relationship with the use of one or another coping strategy [58], as well as its implications for educators, as indicated by Mayer and Salovey’s model [59].

Other theoretical models that are somehow in line with the results obtained in this study can also be found. For instance, the model reflected in the study carried out by Downey et al. [60] points to the existence of links between coping strategies and the intrapersonal emotional intelligence variable, which may become one of the relevant psychoeducational variables for the adequate management of everyday stress and adversity in children and young people. By the same token, in the research carried out by Wang et al. [61], they found that self-efficacy was a mediating variable between active coping with stress and emotional intelligence.

A limitation of this study to be noted is that it was a cross-sectional study. It is also necessary to continue expanding the sample. Additionally, as a future line of research, the relationships with other psychoeducational variables or constructs could be analyzed. For example, applying other questionnaires validated more specifically in the Spanish context, such as the questionnaire adapted by Munduate et al. [62] to assess interpersonal conflict management style and its relationships with the typology of coping strategies for coping with daily stress. Possible relationships could also be analyzed using a more complex multivariate model with the mindfulness variable, as in the study by Pérez-Yus et al. [63].

5. Conclusions

It can be concluded that conflict resolution and social support were the strategies used by the present sample for coping with daily stress in the academic/work environment.

The information obtained in this research is considered useful for designing training actions and programs for the prevention of daily stress, especially considering that fewer studies have evaluated the scores of coping strategies most used in the face of daily stress problems in the work or academic environment, compared to other conflicts or major problems.