International Journal of Engineering Technology and Management Sciences

Website: ijetms.in Issue: 4 Volume No.7 July - August – 2023

DOI:10.46647/ijetms.2023.v07i04.073 ISSN: 2581-4621

Emotional Intelligence and Coping Self-

efficacy among Emerging Adults
Hitha Hari1, Fathima Majeed2, Dora Baby3, Abel Biju Ninan4,
Krupa Dinah Mathews5
1,2,3,4
PG-MSc Psychology, Kristu Jyoti College of Management and Technology, Changanasserry,
Kottayam, Kerala
5
Assistant Professor, Post Graduate Department of Psychology, Kristu Jyoti College of
Management and Technology, Changanasserry, Kottayam, Kerala

ABSTRACT
Emotional Intelligence is the capacity to understand, use, and control your personal feelings in
fantastic methods to alleviate stress, speak effectively, empathize with others, triumph over
demanding situations and defuse conflict. It includes more than a few skills, which include the
ability to apprehend and speak emotions, manipulate one's emotions, empathize with others, and
make use of emotions to manual our selections and actions. Coping self-efficacy refers to one's
judgment approximately their cap potential to manage efficaciously with existence challenges. Put
any other way, coping self-efficacy is the sensation that you possibly can efficaciously deal with a
stressor. The study's goal was to examine the relationship between emerging adults' emotional
intelligence and coping self-efficacy. The sample consisted of 67 emerging adults aged 18 to 25.
The Brief Emotional Intelligence Scale (BEIS-10) and Coping Self-Efficacy Scale (CSES) have
been used. SPSS was used for the statistical analysis. Data analysis was done using the spearman
correlation test. According to the study, there is a significant positive correlation between emotional
intelligence and coping self-efficacy there is also a significant relationship between the subscales of
emotional intelligence such as regulation of own emotion, regulation of others emotion and
utilization of emotions with coping self-efficacy and also have no significant relationship with the
subscales of emotional intelligence such as appraisal of own emotion and appraisal of others
emotion with coping self efficacy.

Keywords- Emotional intelligence, Coping self-efficacy, emerging adults, Correlation.

1. Introduction
A large group of persons between the ages of 18 and 25 are considered emerging adults. The
culmination of every stage of childhood and adulthood is emerging adulthood. Actually, the term
"developmental duration" is used. They prefer to engage with people and build more relationships at
this time because they are more forceful and choose to do so. Their very own developmental paths
are co-created by them. Identity explorations, instability, self-focus, a sense of being between
childhood and maturity, and a celebration of the vast possibilities for the future are the five
developments that make growing up distinctive. The definition of emerging adulthood is mostly
determined by mechanized nations, where the majority of younger individuals complete
postsecondary education, and where the median ages of marriage and parenting are about 30.
Within developed and poor nations, there are differences in how adults develop. The self-centered
independence of developing adulthood is established by way of way of burden to parents and way
of way of traditional attitudes of sexuality, and it lasts for a very long time in Europe and Asian
industrialized nations. Young adults demonstrate higher levels of emotional intelligence.
Understanding, using, and modifying your own emotions allows you to reduce stress, improve
communication, empathize with others, overcome challenges, and defuse conflict. Emotional
intelligence is also known as emotional quotient. Emotional intelligence is necessary for achieving

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 International Journal of Engineering Technology and Management Sciences
Website: ijetms.in Issue: 4 Volume No.7 July - August – 2023
DOI:10.46647/ijetms.2023.v07i04.073 ISSN: 2581-4621

your non-personal and professional goals, as well as academic and professional success. Making
judgments about what issues are most important may also be facilitated by connecting with
emotions, putting goals into practice, and being in touch with feelings. There are several aspects to
feelings, including the evaluation of one's own sentiments: Emotional evaluation refers to the
methods through which a person's beliefs about a situation enable them to anticipate their own
emotional reactions to such information. Our own emotions can help us interpret events. Evaluating
the emotions of others, the capacity of a person to comprehend and perceive the emotions of the
people around them. Controlling one's emotions: The maximum power to influence one's own
emotional state is known as emotion law. It may also include actions like reconsidering a tough
situation to minimize anger or worry, disguising visible signs and symptoms of disappointment or
fear, or acting with the intention of feeling contented or peaceful. Regulation of others' emotions:
Humans can control their own emotions by using a process called emotional law. Utilization of
emotions: A formal definition of emotion utilization is adaptive cognition and behavior that is
prompted by an emotional experience. Controlling feelings or behavior linked to emotions at once
is conceptually distinct from using feelings.
The capacity of a person or group to use a model to react to environmental stressors or to chronic
stress situations. It can be improved by in-depth accounts of success variations that led to a brief
period of time or a sustained experience of safety perceptions. Perceived self-efficacy is often the
belief a person has on their ability to carry out a specific behavior correctly. A person's perception
of their own ability to deal with stressful situations successfully is referred to as specific self-
efficacy for handling stress. A person's assessment of their competence to engage in a given
behavior safely is known as perceived self-efficacy. An individual's subjective assessment of their
own ability to deal with stressful situations effectively is known as specific self-efficacy for
managing stress. In the Stress and Coping Theory, both evaluation phases are influenced by self-
efficacy for managing stress. The likelihood that a person can control their emotions or their level
of confidence in their ability to address the situation impacts the unfavorable consequence they
anticipate. Second, the selection and use of coping mechanisms are greatly influenced by one's view
of one's own capacity for success. People will pick, plan, and execute strategies they feel are
beneficial and successful for handling the circumstance. Therefore, having a high level of self-
efficacy for managing with stress can both avoid or mitigate the effects of stress on one's health.
Self-efficacy, which is frequently mistaken with self-regulation, is connected to the idea of self-
control and the capacity to modify your behavior to achieve your goals. Although they are linked,
the ideas remain distinct. Similar to motivation, self-efficacy and motivation are two distinct
phenomena even if they are closely related. Motivation is based on the individual's desire to achieve
goals, whereas self-efficacy is based on the individual's conviction in their own ability to
accomplish goals. Although it is not always the case, people with strong self-efficacy frequently
have great motivation. However, it is true that when someone increases or maintains self-efficacy
via the experience of success—however small—they often experience an increase in drive to keep
learning and progressing.
1.1 Review of Literature
An investigation by Pooja V. Anand examined the relationship between coping self-efficacy (CSE),
emotional intelligence (EI), and occupational stress. There were 159 bank employees in the study—
87 men and 72 women—from both public and private institutions. 27 to 55 years old was the range
of participants' ages. The researchers used the Occupational Role Questionnaire of the Occupational
Stress Inventory, the CSE Scale, and the Assessing Emotions Scale to collect data. Methods
including the independent samples t-test, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis were
used to analyze the data that had been gathered. The results showed that occupational stress had a
very strong negative correlation with both EI and CSE. The association between CSE and EI was
also shown to be quite significant.
Maria del Mar Molero Jurado, Maria del Carmen Perez-Fuentes, and Nieves Fatima examined the
relationship between self-efficacy and emotional intelligence in nursing workers in their research

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 International Journal of Engineering Technology and Management Sciences
Website: ijetms.in Issue: 4 Volume No.7 July - August – 2023
DOI:10.46647/ijetms.2023.v07i04.073 ISSN: 2581-4621

study. 1777 nurses made up the sample for this study. A number of assessments were used,
including the perceived stress questionnaire, the general self-efficacy scale, and the short emotional
intelligence test for seniors. The results showed that a number of factors, including self-efficacy,
mood, flexibility, and self-management of stress, contributed for 22.7% of the variation in the
harassment-social component. These same factors also contributed to the explanation of 28.9% of
the variation in the irritability-tension-fatigue dimension. The factors mood, stress management,
self-efficacy, intrapersonal abilities, and interpersonal skills explained 38.6% of the variance in the
energy-joy component, with interpersonal skills being the most significant influence. The factors
mood, self-efficacy, interpersonal skills, stress management, and intrapersonal skills accounted for
the remaining 27.2% of the variation in the fear-anxiety dimension. The study's findings suggest
that boosting emotional intelligence among nurses through customized programmes that take into
account particular gender variations may be a useful strategy for lowering stress. These
professionals would feel less anxiety and have more wellbeing if they learned more efficient stress
coping techniques.

2. Objective
To assess the relationship between Emotional intelligence and Coping self efficacy among
Emerging adults.

3. Hypotheses
1. There will be a significant relationship between emotional intelligence and coping self efficacy
among emerging adults.
2. There will be significant relationship between regulation of own emotion and coping self efficacy.
3. There will be significant relationship between regulation of others emotion and coping self
efficacy.
4. There will be significant relationship between utilization of emotions and coping self efficacy.
5. There will be no significant relationship between appraisal of own emotion and coping self
efficacy.
6. There will be no significant relationship between appraisal of others emotion and coping self
efficacy.

4. METHOD
4.1 Participants
The total sample size of the study is 67. The study focused on emerging adults of age 18 to 25, and
samples were taken using convenient sampling method. The samples were collected from various
districts of Kerala. Inclusion Criteria, in this present study, students of both genders; male and
female are included. Sample includes undergraduate degree students and postgraduate degree
students who are in the age between 18- 25. Study mainly includes students of undergraduate
second year and above. Exclusion Criteria, in this study, students above 25 years of age were
excluded. The study also excluded students below 18 years of age. Physically and mentally
challenged people were excluded.
4.2 Measures
Brief Emotional Intelligence Scale (BEIS-10)
The complete Emotional Intelligence Scale, developed by Davies, Devonport, Kevin, Lane, and
Scott and improved by Schutte et al. (2010), is the source of the abbreviated Emotional Intelligence
Scale. An individual's adaptive interpersonal and intrapersonal emotional functioning was assessed
using a total of 10 measures. The dimensions are: (1) Self-emotional evaluation; (2) Emotional
evaluation of others; (3) Self-emotional regulation; (4) Emotional regulation of others; and (5)
Emotional utilisation.

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 International Journal of Engineering Technology and Management Sciences
Website: ijetms.in Issue: 4 Volume No.7 July - August – 2023
DOI:10.46647/ijetms.2023.v07i04.073 ISSN: 2581-4621

Administration
For the aforementioned questionnaire, the instructions are as follows: "Please peruse them quickly
and choose the one that applies to you. From 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), there are
seven possible response possibilities. If you are frightened by their questions, you might decide not
to respond.
Scoring
The scale's response format is a 5-point Likert-type scale. Each item was scored using the system
listed below: One represents a lot of disagreement, two represent some dispute, three represent
neither disagreement nor agreement, four represent agreement, and five represent a lot of agreement.
Reliability and Validity
The Reliability of the Emotional Intelligence Scale is 88. The validity of the emotional Intelligence
Scale is 37.
Coping Self-Efficacy Scale (CSES)
The 26-item Coping Self-Efficacy Scale (CSES) measures perceived self-efficacy for dealing with
difficulties and dangers. The scale items were constructed by several of the writers (Margaret
Chesney, Susan Folkman, and Jonelle Taylor), with input from Dr. Albert Bandura of Stanford
University, using sample items based on stress and coping theory and the Ways of Coping
Questionnaire.
Administration
The following question is posed to respondents: "How confident or certain are you that you can do
the following when things aren't going well for you, or when you're having problems?" The level to
which they feel they might undertake behaviours crucial to adaptive coping is then rated on an 11-
point scale. The scale's anchor points are 0 ('cannot do at all,' 5 ('moderately certain,' and 10
('certain,')).
Scoring
By adding the item ratings, a total CSES score is produced ( =.95; scale mean = 137.4, SD = 45.6).
Respondents must answer at least 80% of the scale questions in order to meet our standard scoring
requirement for summarized rating scale scores. When a respondent omits an item or items, we
estimate that respondent's score for the missing item(s) by multiplying the mean of the items they
did reply to by the number of items they omitted, creating a "corrected sum."
Reliability and validity
The CSE scale developed by Sherer et al. (1982) has shown to have high internal consistency and
reliability. In the original study, a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.87 was recorded, showing that
the scale items had a good level of consistency. Similar levels of internal consistency have been
found in further research utilising other populations and translations of the scale, with Cronbach's
alpha values ranging from 0.80 to 0.95. These results imply that the scale is very reliable for
assessing coping self-efficacy. It has been demonstrated that the CSE scale has strong construct
validity, which means that it assesses the notion of coping self-efficacy as intended.
4.3 Procedure
As the first step of data collection, the tools for emotional intelligence and coping self efficacy
were chosen. The method for gathering samples was a survey. Age and gender were among the
socio-demographic data acquired in the survey's initial portion. A clear statement promising the
respondents that their information would stay secret was supplied in order to maintain participant
confidentiality. Participants were made aware that taking part in the study was completely up to
them and that declining to do so would not have any negative effects. Participants received
instructions before the questionnaire was presented to them. Participants were notified that their
personally identifiable information would not be released without their knowledge and that the data
would only be used for study in order to get their agreement. Following data analysis, conclusions
based on the study were drawn from the acquired data.

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 International Journal of Engineering Technology and Management Sciences
Website: ijetms.in Issue: 4 Volume No.7 July - August – 2023
DOI:10.46647/ijetms.2023.v07i04.073 ISSN: 2581-4621

4.4 Statistical analysis

The collected data were converted into spreadsheets, and SPSS 28 was used to analyse them. Many
academics use the statistical package for social studies, a piece of software, to do extensive
statistical analyses on social science data. The Spearman-Rho correlation method is employed for
the analysis.

5. Result
Table 1
Correlation between emotional intelligence and coping self-efficacy among emerging adults.
Variable Emotional Appraisal Appraisal Regulation Regulation Utilization
intelligence of own of others of own of other of
emotions emotions emotions emotions emotions
Coping r value .497** .238 .169 .604** .324** .356**
self-
efficacy p .000 .052 .171 .000 .008 .003
value
**the value is significant at the .01 level
*the value is significant at the 0.05 level
The table shows a significant correlation between the emotional intelligence and coping self
efficacy. The correlation is significant at 0.01 with a corresponding r value of .497** and p value
of.000. The r value and p value of regulation of own emotions and coping self efficacy are .604**
and .000 respectively. Regulation of others emotion and coping self efficacy are significantly
correlated at the level of significance 0.01with an r value of .324** and a p value of .008
respectively, Utilization of emotions is also found to be significantly correlated with coping self
efficacy at the significance level 0.01 with an r value of .356** and a p value of .003 respectively.

6. Discussion
The study’s objective was to examine the relationship between emotional intelligence and coping
self efficacy among emerging adults of the age group 18-25. Coping self-efficacy is an individual's
belief in their ability to cope with and handle challenging or stressful situations effectively. Coping
self efficacy plays a significant role in shaping how people approach and deal with various life
stressors. The result shows a relationship between emotional intelligence and coping self efficacy.
There is a positive correlation between emotional intelligence and coping self efficacy. Coping self-
efficacy significantly influences emotional intelligence, forming a dynamic and mutually
reinforcing relationship. People with high coping self-efficacy tend to be better at managing and
navigating their emotions effectively. They are more aware of their emotional states and have the
self-assurance to handle difficult emotions in a constructive manner. Adaptability is a crucial aspect
of emotional intelligence, allowing individuals to respond appropriately to various social and
personal circumstances. Furthermore, coping self-efficacy positively influences empathy and social
skills. As individuals feel more competent in managing their emotions, they become more open and
understanding of others' emotional experiences. This heightened empathy enhances their ability to
connect with others on an emotional level and builds stronger and more supportive relationships.
The subscale of emotional intelligence, “regulation of own emotion” and the variable coping of self
efficacy are positively correlated. People who have a higher level of resilience in dealing with
difficult emotional situations are more likely to believe that they can make the most effective use of
them. That is because they are confident in their ability to regulate emotion, thus making them more
able to manage emotions. In contrast, people with effective regulation of emotion are more likely to
feel competent in managing their emotions and dealing with stressful situations. By successfully
dealing with emotions, they are also reinforcing their belief in coping abilities and contributing to a
higher level of self-confidence. It can be seen that there is a bidirectional relationship between
coping ability and emotion regulation. However, it is important to note that both coping ability and

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 International Journal of Engineering Technology and Management Sciences
Website: ijetms.in Issue: 4 Volume No.7 July - August – 2023
DOI:10.46647/ijetms.2023.v07i04.073 ISSN: 2581-4621

regulation are not fixed characteristics. Different factors, such as past experience, the degree of
support received from other stakeholders and feedback on efforts to deal with this situation can
influence them.
The subscale of emotional intelligence, “regulation of others emotion” and the variable coping of
self efficacy are positively correlated. Coping self-efficacy and the regulation of others' emotions
are not directly related to each other. The focus of coping self-efficacy is primarily on the belief and
ability to manage one's emotions and cope with personal challenges. By contrast, how one responds
and supports another in managing emotional experiences is what regulates the emotions of others.
But in the regulation of another person's emotions, there may be a direct influence from coping with
self-efficacy. A person with a more resilient capacity for coping may be able to engage in loving
and sympathetic behavior toward others, if they have the ability to control their own emotion. It is
more likely that people will become emotionally capable of understanding and reacting to other
people's feelings in an effective way if they are able to control their own emotions. They can help
those who are experiencing emotional difficulties by providing greater emotional support, and
enabling them to be more easily assisted or comforted.
The subscale of emotional intelligence, “utilization of emotions” and the variable coping of self
efficacy are positively correlated. It is more likely that people will achieve success in dealing with
their emotions, when they take effective action to manage them as part of their response strategies.
Their confidence in their ability to cope has been reinforced by these favourable experiences,
resulting in a higher capacity for coping. They see emotions as an essential source of information,
and are aware that emotional states may be instrumental in deciding how to cope. They are better
placed to choose the right handling strategy that works for them based on their emotion needs, when
they embrace their emotions. Adaptive coping strategies that incorporate emotional experiences
more effectively are likely to be used by people who have a strong attitude of self-efficacy. They're
more certain about the ability to deal directly with emotional issues and process emotions in a
healthy way. This will enable them to leverage emotions as a fundamental part of their adaptive
repertoire, leading to more successful outcomes.

7. Implications
Understanding the relationship between emotional intelligence and coping self-efficacy is made
easier by the current study. The study's overall findings suggest that increasing self-efficacy may
have a soothing effect on emotional intelligence. Self-efficacy might therefore improve emotional
management and even raise total emotional intelligence. Evidently, there is evidence to back up the
notion that emotional intelligence may depend heavily on coping self-efficacy. Self-efficacy, also
known as coping self-efficacy, can support people in controlling their emotions and handling stress.

CONCLUSION
The study was aimed to find out the relationship between emotional intelligence and coping self-
efficacy among emerging adults. From finding it can be concluded that there is a significant positive
correlation between emotional intelligence and coping self-efficacy among emerging adults.
Scope for further study
Limitations and recommendations that can be put forward for future studies include the following:
1. A tiny sample of a handful of people hardly constitutes a true representation of the full
population. In this way, it is advised that subsequent research use a huge number of samples and
include more individuals in the study
2. The study can be conducted in different groups of the population.
3. Studies can be conducted on the basis of a comparison of sociodemographic details as
well.
4. To see if similar results may be found elsewhere, this study ought to be reproduced.
5. Studies can be conducted based on their gender differences among others.

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