Lights and Shadows of Trait Emotional Intelligence: Its Mediating Role in the Relationship Between Negative Affect and State Anxiety in University Students

Abstract

Nowadays, students are experiencing difficult and stressful situations due to the Global Pandemic Alert. This changing world can evoke negative emotions that have been traditionally linked to higher anxiety. Researches have been focused on the positive outcomes of trait emotional intelligence (TEI) preventing psychological disorders. However, the possibility that TEI might have a dark side has been neglected. Hence, this study aimed to explore the mediating effect of the three dimensions of TEI in the relationship between negative affect and anxiety symptoms among college students. Participants of this research were 467 undergraduates who completed an online self-reported questionnaire including the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS; Watson et al., 1988), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI; Spielberger et al., 1970), and Trait Meta-Mood Scale (TMMS-24, Salovey et al., 1995). The global serial mediation model showed that the total amount of variance explained by the global model was 30.8% (R2 = 0.31). Negative affectivity and age accounted for the 15.1% of state anxiety variance (R2 = 0.15; c: B = 0.63, p < 0.001) while 15.7% of the variance of state anxiety was attributed to the direct or indirect effect of the three dimensions of TEI (R2 = 0.16). Five indirect effects presented statistical significance (95% BootCI). The contrast analyses between mediators showed that three indirect effects had higher statistical weigh; the ability of negative affect to increase state anxiety through (i) emotional attention; (ii) emotional clarity, and (iii) serially through emotional clarity and mood repair. Our results indicated that students’ negative emotions lead to higher emotional attention which in turn may enhance state anxiety in two ways: by a direct effect of emotional attention on state anxiety and by a serial effect through emotional clarity. Moreover, when negative affect is associated with lower emotional clarity, anxiety symptoms may also arise. However, when attention and clarity are connected, the negative effect is reversed into a positive one, decreasing state anxiety.

Experiencing anxiety in breast cancer survival: Does perceived emotional intelligence matter?

“…Likewise, regarding the association between PEI and anxiety in the total sample, EA is not always adaptive and at high levels is linked to increased anxiety. These findings are consistent with those found by Guil et al., 31 in undergraduate students. Likewise, this emotional distress could also be accentuated by low EC and ER 31,32 …”

“…Likewise, this emotional distress could also be accentuated by low EC and ER. 31,32 Finally, it was found that a differentiated profile in terms of PEI dimensions in BC survivors may have different results in experienced Moreover, anxiety would be accentuated if, in addition to affecting EC, it also interfered with ER. Thus, taking into account the serial influence of the dimensions of PEI, 30 not discriminating emotions correctly prevents the implementation of strategies aimed at modifying them.…”

Assessing emotional, empathic and coping skills in Spanish undergraduates in Health Sciences and Social Sciences

“…With regard to the relationships between variables, our findings suggest the importance of anxiety and stress in the undergraduates, in line with other studies from different parts of the world and for students enrolled on different types of degree courses (Balaji et al, 2019;Belaunzaran, 2019;Cañero et al, 2019;Castañeda 2016;Mohamad et al, 2021;Morales-Rodríguez & Pérez-Mármol, 2019;Musumari et al, 2018;Morales-Rodríguez et al, 2020). Our data confirm that students reporting episodes of anxiety or stress exhibit greater attention to emotions and inability to repair such emotions (Guil et al, 2021), have difficulties in overall emotion regulation and on most of the subscales (Hallion et al, 2018), and present less effective coping strategies, as shown by their scores on some of the COPE subscales, such as: venting, self-blame and lower positive reframing (Masha'al et al, 2022). Empathy, however, was higher among students with anxiety or stress, such that, as suggested (Pittelkow et al, 2021), there exists hypersensitivity to the emotional signals of others, excessive empathic functioning, with over-attribution of others' mental states and a greater sense of alertness among students with anxiety.…”

Positive attentional bias mediates the relationship between trait emotional intelligence and trait affect

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