The relationship between emotional intelligence and the ways of occupational stress coping in nurses

Abstract

Objective To investigate characteristics of emotional intelligence(EI)and the ways of occupational stress coping in nurses as well as the predictive validity of EI on coping strategies.Methods 464 nurses from general hospitals were collected and evaluated with psychometric instruments including:Wong's Emotional Intelligence Scale(WEIS)and Nurse Ways of Coping Questionnaire.Data were conducted by Logistic regress analysis according to key themes.Results (1)Nurses' demographic characteristics had effects to the ways of occupational stress coping and emotional intelligence.However,there was no statistical difference of El varied with education levels(P＞0.05).(2)Both problems solving and positive recognition are main coping styles of nurses towards occupational stress.Either avoidance or self-reproach was seldom coping strategies of nurses toward occupational pressures(2.60±0.55;2.60±0.75;1.37±0.69;respectively).(3)El was correlated with coping styles(r=-0.123～0.253,P＜0.05,P＜0.01).Conclusion Four dimensions of EI positively or negatively predicted six kinds of occupational stress coping strategies separately. Key words: Emotional intelligence; Occupational stress; Ways of coping; Nurse