I’m Not Good for Anything and That’s Why I’m Stressed: Analysis of the Effect of Self-Efficacy and Emotional Intelligence on Student Stress Using SEM and QCA

Abstract

Stress negatively affects the well-being and the quality of life of the society. Specifically in the academic context, it is relevant to analyze its levels due to its impact on performance and learning. There are factors that affect the said stress including, among others, self-efficacy, and emotional intelligence. The purpose of this study is to analyze how emotional intelligence and perceived self-efficacy affect student stress. In order to show this influence, two complementary methodologies are implemented: the structural equation models (SEMs) and the comparative qualitative analysis (QCA). A total of 477 students (85% of women) from a private University of Valencia participated in the study, with ages ranging from 18 to 53 years old (M = 21.57, SD = 3.68). The assessment instruments used were as follows: Emotional Intelligence Scale (TMMS-24) to measure emotional intelligence; General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSS) to measure selfefficacy; and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) to measure stress. The results in the SEM endorse the hypotheses that emotional clarity and self-efficacy are negatively related to stress and positively related to emotional attention (EA), explaining 25% of the variance. The QCA results show that none of the variables is a necessary condition for inducing stress. Nevertheless, different combinations of these variables are sufficient conditions to explain 35% of the high stress levels. The most important combination over high stress levels seems to be the interaction between high levels of EA and low levels of self-efficacy. Regarding the low levels of perceived stress, there are sufficient conditions to explain 50% of them. Mainly, the most important interaction is between low levels of self-efficacy and low levels of EA. The comparison of both methodologies enables the broadening of new horizons at the methodological level applicable to different contexts.

Influence of COVID-19 on the Perception of Academic Self-Efficacy, State Anxiety, and Trait Anxiety in College Students

“…Regarding the first hypothesis, the data showed that there was an inversely proportional relationship between the perception of academic self-efficacy and anxiety, both TA and SA, results in line with the research of Gutiérrez-García and Landeros-Velázquez (2018) , Navarro-Mateu et al (2020) , and Colom (2012) . One explanation might be that anxiety is related to both cognitive and motivational and emotional processes.…”

“…These motivational characteristics could negatively affect the expectations of self-efficacy that, together with the demands of the university context, could interfere with their academic aspirations ( Ahmadi, 2020 ). In addition, the psychological pressure of the confinement ( Xiao, 2020 ) was joined to the academic demands, workload, and online evaluations that could negatively affect the perception of academic self-efficacy ( Navarro-Mateu et al, 2020 ), generating higher levels of anxiety in university students ( Huarcaya-Victoria, 2020 ). In addition, not attending classes due to the closure of universities was a factor of concern and anxiety ( Kelly, 2020 ), since the work methodology changed ( Abreu, 2020 ) when the students were not prepared.…”

“…Furthermore, anxiety is indirectly related to academic performance and directly related to the perception of academic self-efficacy ( Gutiérrez-García and Landeros-Velázquez, 2018 ). Therefore, 29% of the Spanish university students with a high level of stress had low levels of self-efficacy ( Navarro-Mateu et al, 2020 ). In this line, anxiety was negatively related to academic self-efficacy ( Gutiérrez-García and Landeros-Velázquez, 2018 ) and positively to state anxiety (SA) in Nigerian university students ( Onyeizugbo, 2010 ).…”

“…In addition, the stress generated by the academic context (overload of tasks, pressure due to work, frequent evaluations, and the pandemic situation, among others) could lower expectations of self-efficacy. Thus, 29% of students with high levels of stress showed low levels of self-efficacy, concluding that there is an inversely proportional relationship ( Navarro-Mateu et al, 2020 ). These findings highlight the importance of these variables for academic performance since those who had great academic self-efficacy also presented more study and cognitive tools that helped organize themselves better ( Delgado et al, 2019 ).…”

Psychosocial Factors and Chronic Illness as Predictors for Anxiety and Depression in Adolescence

“…When performing the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, the raw data from the participants' responses were transformed into fuzzy-set responses. First, all the missing data were deleted as suggested in the literature, and all constructs (variables) were calculated by multiplying their item scores (Villanueva et al, 2017;Giménez-Espert and Prado-Gascó, 2018;Navarro-Mateu et al, 2020). Before performing the analysis, the values were recalibrated between 0 and 1.…”