Emotional Intelligence of Adolescents in Relation to Their Test Anxiety and Academic Stress

Abstract

The concept emotional intelligence (EI) has its roots in consideration that began as early as the late 1930s, when researchers began describing a non-intellective intelligence sometimes described as “social intelligence”. In simpler terms, emotional intelligence might be defined as the set of skills people use to read, understand, and react effectively to emotional signals sent by others and oneself. These are skills such as empathy, problem-solving, optimism, and self-awareness which allow people to reflect, react to, and understand various environmental situations. There is a strong relationship between the emotional intelligence with the anxiety and the stress. Over the decades there is strong discussion and research going on what happens to the emotional intelligence when there is increased anxiety and academic stress among adolescents. Taking in consideration the above facts, an investigation will be carried out on the “Emotional intelligence among adolescents in relation to their test anxiety and academic stress”. This study will be conducted to examine the role of the emotional intelligence and its relation with test anxiety and academic stress among adolescents. We seek to test hypothesis that in adolescents at the time of test anxiety and in academic stress, emotional intelligence (EI) decreases. To test our hypothesis, a sample of around 250 adolescents (both boys and girls in equal ratio) in the age group of 18 to 23 years with nonclinical history of anxiety and stress was taken from the different colleges of Kashmir valley. The level of emotions was quantified in relation to all variables (test anxiety and academic stress) using emotional intelligence scale by schute et al. scales. Taking in consideration our objective and hypothesis, data collected is analyzed by (one way ANOVA) analysis of variance. After analyzing the data my result showed the significance difference among gender in emotional intelligence as well as in test anxiety.