Negative emotions as predictors of loneliness in university students during the pandemic

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