dc.description.abstract | The COVID-19 pandemic has provoked extraordinary
disruptions to higher education. Changes in learning
opportunities and habits could contribute to academic pressure
and stresses related to academic expectations, examinations
and students’ academic self-perceptions. According to previous
studies, academic stress is related to both basic personality traits
and emotional intelligence (EI) as a trait which demonstrated its
relevance in numerous researches regarding stress and mental
health domains. The present study sought to examine the role
of trait EI in predicting the academic-related stress during the
pandemic, while controlling for the basic personality traits. A
sample (N = 291) of 259 female and 32 male participants, age
range 18-33 (M=19.82, SD=1.70) completed: (1) Perceptions of
Academic Stress (PAS) Scale, measuring intensity of academicrelated stress, (2) HEXACO Personality Inventory Revised
comprising traits Honesty-Humility, Emotionality, Extraversion,
Agreeableness, Conscientiousness and Openness to experience,
and (3) the TEIQue, examining trait EI (encompassing factors
Well-Being, Self-control, Emotionality, and Sociability). Subjects in this online research were students from the University of
Belgrade. Hierarchical regression model comprised of the
HEXACO personality traits (entered 1st) and trait EI factors
(entered 2nd) as predictors, and academic stress as a criterion
variable was tested. HEXACO personality traits explained 21%
of variance (F(6, 284) = 13.94, adj. R2
= .211, p < .001) with
Honesty-Humility (ß = -.113, p < .05), Emotionality (ß = .202,
p<.001), Extraversion (ß = -.313, p < .001) and Conscientiousness
(ß = -.166, p < .01) as significant predictors. In the second step,
academic stress was predicted (F(10, 280) = 12.12, adj. R2= .277,
p < .001) positively by HEXACO Emotionality (ß = .200, p<.01)
and negatively by trait EI factors Wellbeing (ß = -.205, p < .01)
and Sociability (ß = -.171, p < .05). Predictors of the second block
incrementally explained 7.5% of the variance in academic stress.
The current data thus suggests that specific emotion related
personality dispositions encompassed by trait EI (particularly
Well-Being and Sociability) have a significant role in predicting
academic-related stress during the pandemic. These findings
also indicate that trait EI exibits incremental predictive validity
over the basic personality dimensions. | sr |