Trait emotional intelligence as a damping factor in the face of post-pandemic lockdown academic exhaustion?

Abstract

Introduction: nursing students are a population vulnerable to mental health problems, especially burnout syndrome. Trait emotional intelligence appears as a protective factor against these risks. The psycho-emotional effects of returning to in-person academic activities post-COVID-19 confinement have not been described.Objective: describe the relationship of trait Emotional Intelligence with academic burnout in Nursing students after returning to in-person academic activities post-confinement at a Chilean university.Methods: quantitative-correlational, cross-sectional, non-experimental, non-probabilistic study. 213 surveys were administered to measure trait emotional intelligence and academic burnout in the post-confinement period. Differences in means were reported through post-hoc analysis with Games Howell statistics, and correlations were performed with the Rho Spearman coefficient.Results: there was a high percentile in trait emotional intelligence (58 %) of the sample, and a mild prevalence of academic burnout (92,1 %). Statistically significant correlations (p<0.000) were observed between several factors. The Well-being factor was presented negatively with two dimensions of burnout; while the Emotionality factor was shown to be a risk for increased emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, but positively associated with personal fulfillment.Conclusions: there is a relationship between variables, two factors of trait emotional intelligence were associated with burnout. Universities and academics must act as promoters of emotional intelligence in order to reduce burnout. More research and caution is required when automatically concluding that higher levels of emotional intelligence are always better in any circumstance