The relationship between emotional inteligence, perfectionism, test anxiety and mental health in university students

Abstract

Cilj ovog istraživanja bio je ispitati ulogu emocionalne inteligencije, perfekcionizma i ispitne anksioznosti u objašnjenju problema mentalnog zdravlja studenata. Istraživanje je provedeno na uzorku od 222 studenata Veleučilišta i Sveučilišta u Hrvatskoj. Emocionalna inteligencija je ispitana Testom upravljanja emocijama (TUE; Babić Čikeš i Buško, 2014), mentalno zdravlje ispitano je Inventarom mentalnog zdravlja (Veit i Ware, 1983), perfekcionizam je ispitan Multidimenzionalnom skalom perfekcionizma (MPS – F; Frost i sur., 1990), a ispitna anksioznost ispitana je Upitnikom ispitne anksioznosti (Arambašić, Lugomer i Vizek-Vidović, 1989). Rezultati su pokazali da nema povezanosti između emocionalne inteligencije i mentalnog zdravlja studenata. Dobivena je značajna pozitivna povezanost između probelma mentalnog zdravlja i neadaptivnih dimenzija perfekcionizma koje uključuju zabrinutost zbog pogrešaka, dvojbe oko aktivnosti, roditeljska prigovaranja, te negativna povezanost između adaptivne dimenzije organiziranosti i boljeg mentalnog zdravlja. Rezultati su, također, pokazali kako postoji umjerena pozitivna povezanost između ispitne anksioznosti i mentalnog zdravlja. Hijerarhijska regresijska analiza sugerira da ispitna anksioznost, zabrinutost zbog pogrešaka, dvojbe oko aktivnosti, roditeljska prigovaranja doprinose problemima mentalnog zdravlja, dok organiziranost doprinosi boljem mentalnom zdravlju. Također se pokazalo da ispitna anksioznost posreduje u odnosu zabrinutosti zbog pogrešaka i dvojba oko aktivnosti i mentalnog zdravlja studenata, što znači da osobe s visokim neadaptivnim perfekcionizmom imaju više problema mentalnog zdravlja putem visoke ispitne anksioznosti, dok adaptivna dimenzija perfekcionizma organiziranost ima izravan utjecaj na mentalno zdravlje studenata.The purpose of this study was to examine the role of emotional intelligence, perfectionism and test anxiety in explaining mental health problems in University students. The study included a sample group of 222 students who are studying at universities and colleges in Croatia. Participants completed Emotion Regulation questionnaire (ERQ; Babić Čikeš i Buško, 2014), Mental Health inventory (Veit i Ware, 1983), The Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism scale (MPS – F; Frost i sur., 1990) and Test Anxiety inventory (Arambašić, Lugomer i Vizek-Vidović, 1989). The results show that there is no correlation between emotional intelligence and student’s mental health. The results indicate that there was a positive correlation between mental health problems and maladaptive dimensions of perfectionism such as concern over mistakes, doubts about actions and high parental criticism. Mental health was negatively correlated with adaptive dimension of perfectionism organization. Test anxiety was also moderately positively correlated to mental health. Hierarchical regression analysis suggests that test anxiety, concern over mistakes, doubts about actions and parental criticism are predictors of mental health problems, while organization predicts better mental health. Furthermore, results showed that test anxiety has a mediating role in the relationship between concern over mistakes, doubts about actions and mental health of students, which means that high maladaptive dimensions of perfectionism were associated with greater reported problems of mental health through high test anxiety, while adaptive dimension of perfectionism (organization) still has the direct impact on mental health of students