RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND COPING STRATEGIES AMONG UNIVERSITY TEACHERS OF KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA

Abstract

The present study investigated the relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Coping strategies among university teachers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The research sample comprised of 222 male and 152 female university teachers. Convenient sampling technique was applied to approach the participants from five Universities of KPK. Teachers completed Self-Report Measure of Emotional Intelligence and Brief Cope Scale (in Urdu). Findings indicated significant relationship between Self Report Measure of Emotional Intelligence and coping strategies among teachers.

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Pakistan Journal of Science (Vol. 67 No.1March, 2015)
81
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND COPING
STRATEGIES AMONG UNIVERSITY TEACHERS OF KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA
F. Bibi, S. F. Kazmi, A. G. Chaudhry* and S. E. Khan**
Hazara University, KPK,
*Department of Sociology and Anthropology PMAS-Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi,
**Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Bahria University Islamabad
**Corresponding Author: shaheer_ellahi@hotmail.com
ABSTRACT: The present study investigated the relationship between Emotional Intelligence and
Coping strategies among university teachers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The research sample
comprised of 222 male and 152 female university teachers. Convenient sampling technique was
applied to approach the participants from five Universities of KPK. Teachers completed Self-Report
Measure of Emotional Intelligence and Brief Cope Scale (in Urdu). Findings indicated significant
relationship between Self Report Measure of Emotional Intelligence and coping strategies among
teachers.
Keywords: Emotional intelligence, Coping strategies, University teachers, Brief cope scale
(Received 19-08-14 Accepted 10-3-15).
INTRODUCTION
Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to
perceive, control and evaluate emotions and ability to
understand his or her own emotions and the emotions of
others and most commonly include concepts of emotional
expression and regulation, self-awareness and empathy
(Cherry, 2012; Doyle, 2012; Romanelli et al, 2006).
Individuals with lower EI are prone to poor physical and
mental health and cannot cope with stressor (Batool,
2011). EI has strong relationship with individual’s ability
to cope with their environmental stressors. Some previous
studies show that people with different level of
emotional intelligence prefer different styles of coping
strategies: Higher EI is correlated with higher
satisfaction with life, better perceived problem-solving
coping ability and significant relationship between
problem solving and seeking social support, as well as
problem solving and dimension of EI (self):self
awareness, motivation, empathy and social skill and
stress also showed relationship with emotional
intelligence(manager); motivation, empathy and social
skill (Bastian, 2005; Estelle, 2009).
Abilities to recognize and regulate emotions in
ourselves and in others can be assessed through four
major domains of EI: self-awareness, self-management,
social awareness, and relationship management
(Goleman, 2001).People who have a high degree of EI
know themselves very well and are also able to sense the
emotions of others (Serrat, 2009). The present study is
based on Mixed Model of EI (Goleman, 2001) based on
the above four components comprising of twenty
competencies (Self-Awareness: emotional self-
awareness, accurate self-assessment; Self-Management:
self-control, trustworthiness, conscientiousness,
adaptability, achievement drive, initiative; Social
Awareness: empathy, service orientation, organizational
awareness; Relationship Management: developing others,
influence, communication, conflict management,
leadership, change catalyst, building bonds, teamwork &
collaboration).These competencies are not innate
capacities, but are learned abilities developed to achieve
marvelous performance (Goleman, 2001).
Coping can also be described as thoughts,
behaviors, or may be strategies that are used to manage a
negative or stressful event like an academic failure
(Lazarus and Folkman, 1987; Kaminsand Dweck, 1999;
Folkman and Moskowitz, 2004). Folkman and
Lazarusdefined coping as activities undertaken to
tolerate, reduce, master, or minimize environmental or
intrapsychic demands perceived to represent potential
threats, existing harm, or losses and coping is highly
contextual, since to be effective it must change over time
and across different stressful condition. Specific
behaviors which are used in dealing with a stressor and
may even be considered independent of outcome is
known coping strategy. (Folkman and Lazarus, 1985)
The level of EI can predict or elaborate ways of
coping (effective and ineffective) as life demands and
stresses change or increase. Trait EI was associated
positively with adaptive coping styles and negatively
with maladaptive coping styles (Mikolajczak et al, 2009).
EI provides people with better understanding of their
reactions to various sources of stress and guidance in
coping process (Baker and Berenbaum, 2007). So EI and
coping strategies may be interrelated to have an effect on
each others. Individuals who are emotionally intelligent
can cope better with life’s challenges and control their

Pakistan Journal of Science (Vol. 67 No.1March, 2015)
82
emotions more proficiently than those that cannot
(Taylor, 2001). Many researchers studied the relationship
between coping and EI such as Gohm and Clore(2002),
Mikolajczak and Lumminet (2008), Ramos, Fernandez-
Berrocal, and Extrema (2007). They all reported high EI
lead to use of active, positive, problem-oriented and
effective coping strategies rather than passive, emotion-
focused and negative coping. Research on EI and coping
strategies among teachers in Pakistan is sparse. And
therefore the present study explores the relationship
between EI and coping strategies of university teachers in
Pakistan.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The sample for present study consisted of 222
male and 152 female University teachers. The sample
was conveniently drawn from the University of
Peshawar, Islamia College University of Peshawar,
Engineering University of Peshawar, Comsat University
of Abbottabad and Hazara University of Mansehra,
Pakistan.
Self –Report Measure of Emotional Intelligence
(SRMEI):(Khan and Kamal, 2010) adapted and
developed SRMEI to assess the overall EI and
components of EI (Emotional Self-Regulation, Emotional
Self-Awareness and Interpersonal Skill). This scale
consisted of 60 items rated on 5-point Likert-type scale
(5= Always, 4= Often, 3= Moderate, 2= Rarely and 1=
Never) and based on positively phrased and negatively
phrased items. The score range for SREMI was from the
minimum of 60 to maximum of 300. High scores on
SRMEI reflected better emotional stability. The
Cronbach’s alpha reliability of SRMEI scale was .91.
Brief Cope Scale: Brief Cope Scale was translated into
Urdu (Akhtar, 2005) and was used in present study. This
scale comprised of 4 subscales: Active Avoidance
Coping, Problem-Focused Coping, Positive Coping,
Religious/ Denial Coping. This scale consisted of 28
items with scoring answers on a four-point Likert scale
(1= Never, 2= Very less, 3= Sometimes, 4= Alot).The
possible theoretical range of score on Brief Cope was 28
to 112. High score on each subscale indicated more use
of that particular coping strategy and low score indicates
less use of that coping strategy. The Cronbach’s alpha
reliability of Brief Cope Scale was .87 (Carver, 1997).
Demographic information Questionnaire: This
questionnaire was based on the basic information of the
respondents. The variables included age, gender,
qualification and work experience.
Procedure: Before administering the scales, informed
consent was obtained from all the participants. Then they
were requested to complete demographic information
questionnaire, which was followed by two
questionnaires: SRMEI and Brief Cope Scale.
Participants were given approximately 40 minutes to
complete the set of questionnaires. After collecting data,
SPSS 16 version was used for data analysis. Pearson
correlation was applied for testing hypotheses.
RESULTS
Results revealed a significant positive
correlation between EI and Problem Focused Coping, r
(372) = .14, p < .01 and Positive Coping, r (372) = .16, p
< .01, and showed significant negative correlations
between Active Avoidance Coping r (372) = -.38, p <
.01, and Religious/Denial Coping r (372) = -.20, p < .01.
Table 1: Correlation between Problem Focused
Coping and Positive Coping with -reference
to SRMEI
Variable
PFC
PC
SRMEI
.142**
SRMEI
.155**
Note: SRMEI =Self Report Measure Emotional Intelligence;
PFC=Problem Focused Coping; PC= Positive Coping.
df=372; **p<.01
Table 1 showed significant positive correlation
between emotional intelligence and Problem Focused
Coping and Positive Coping. Statistical findings indicated
that Self Report Measure of Emotional Intelligence
(SRMEI) was positively correlated with Problem Focused
Coping and Positive Coping.
Table 2: Correlation between Active Avoidance
Coping and Religious/Denial Coping with
reference to SRMEI
Variable
AAC
RDC
SRMEI
-.375**
SRMEI
-.196*
Note: SRMEI= Self Report Measure Emotional Intelligence;
AAC= Active Avoidance Coping; RDC= Religious Denial
Coping.
df = 372; **p<.01
Table 2 showed significant negative correlations
among Self Report Measure of Emotional Intelligence,
Active Avoidance Coping and Religious Denial Coping.
Statistical findings indicated that Emotional Intelligence
was negatively correlated with Active Avoidance Coping
and Religious Denial Coping.

Pakistan Journal of Science (Vol. 67 No.1March, 2015)
83
DISCUSSION
The present study found a moderate relationship
between EI and coping strategies among university
teachers of KPK. The data revealed that EI had a
statistically positive correlation with problem-focused on
coping and positive coping, coinciding with study which
revealed that EI was positively associated with the
problem-focused and positive emotional focused coping
styles, and negatively associated with active avoidance
coping and religious/denial coping styles(Noorbakhsh et
al, 2010).It was also report that EI was positively related
to well-being, problem-focused coping and perceived
nursing competency, and negatively related to perceived
stress (Por et al, 2011). It was also observed that a
significant relationship existed between problem solving,
seeking social support, and problem solving in many
dimensions of EI self: self awareness, motivation,
empathy, and social skills (Brink, 2009).
The appraisal of emotions in the self and others
was positively correlated with problem solving and
positive reappraisal coping styles. Emotional regulation
of the self was positively correlated with problem
solving, confronting coping, self-controlling, positive
reappraisal and with distancing, but negatively correlated
with avoidance coping style.(Shah and Thingujam,
2008).Emotional Intelligence (intrapersonal and
interpersonal) was a significant predictor of active coping
strategy(Chan, 2008). Higher levels of EI was applied
by(Campbell and Ntobedzi, 2007)who related to lower
levels of psychological distress and to more adaptive
coping but to less maladaptive coping, andanother study
showed that Trait EI was negatively associated with
depression, somatic complaints and maladaptive coping
styles and positively associated with adaptive coping
styles (Mavroveli et al, 2007), thus a negative correlation
between EI and ineffective coping is not surprising
(Sahin et al, 2009).
The findings of this study revealed that EI had a
positive relationship with problem focused coping
strategy and positive coping strategy; and negative
relationship with active avoidance coping strategy and
religious/denial coping strategy of university teachers.
Conclusion: Through analysis it was concluded that with
higher level of Emotional Intelligence teachers used
adaptive coping strategies and with low level of EI
teachers used maladaptive coping strategies; The teachers
who scored low on EI also scored high on maladaptive
coping strategy, these finding should be included in
policy making to offer training and workshop to improve
the level of EI. Findings may help management of
university in making interventions in order to improve
emotional intelligence of teachers and to enable them to
deal with environmental stressors and difficulties. Study
also suggested that professional functioning may be
improved by enhancing emotional intelligence.
University teachers play crucial role for building students
personality, their future provided they are capable of
coping with life and prepare them for the future life
provided the teachers have good level of EI and are
capable of coping with the challenges in adaptive way.
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