Coping as a mediator in the relationship between Trait emotional intelligence and adolescent stress

ABSTRACT

Adolescents are the drivers of social change and transformation in any community. Their ability to deal with stressors will determine their well-being and ability to contribute to society. Thus, the present study assessed the relationship between trait emotional intelligence (Trait EI), coping styles, and adolescent stress. In particular, it investigated the role of coping styles as a mediator between Trait EI and adolescent stress. Three hundred fifty-seven adolescents studying in schools in Delhi participated in the study. The study revealed a significant association between Trait EI, coping styles, and adolescent stress. Furthermore, the mediation analysis revealed that the relationship between Trait EI and adolescent stress was partially mediated by emotion-oriented coping style. Task and avoidance-oriented coping did not act as mediators. The current findings have implications for psychologists, school counsellors, and mental health researchers involved in building stress management programs to nurture life skills among adolescents.

KEYWORDS:

• Adolescence
• gender
• school
• mental health
• intelligence

Introduction

The progress of any nation depends on the quality of human resources available in various sectors like economy, health, politics, or society. Thus, today’s adolescents can become the driving force of innovations in these sectors tomorrow. However, to achieve it, the ability of adolescents to effectively deal with and manage stress becomes significant. India is home to the largest number of adolescents (253 million) globally, comprising about a fifth of its population (UNICEF, 2023). According to the National Mental Health Survey conducted in 2016, 13.5% of adolescents living in Indian metro cities were diagnosed with mental health disorders (Gururaj et al., 2016). This prevalence is double when compared to rural areas. Studies on Indian adolescents by Mathew et al. (2015) have indicated that urban Indian adolescents faced everyday stressors like school-related pressures, family issues, feelings of loneliness, and getting into trouble due to their behaviour. Similarly, Parikh et al. (2019) found that academic pressure, negotiating parental and peer influences, difficulties in romantic relationships, and exposure to violence were central to causing stress in adolescents’ daily lives. Thus, for adolescents as students, dealing with stress seems unavoidable (Gallagher et al., 2019).

Often, stress happens when there is a contradiction between the demands of the situation and the resources available to cope with it. Adolescence as a stage of development is challenging in many ways. During this period, a being is coming out of childhood and moving towards becoming an adult. In addition, the demand to act as an adult while being controlled by the parents for not being adult enough creates a dilemma in young minds. Looking at these challenges faced by the young ones, Erikson (1994) appropriately summarized the stage of development as a period of conflict between identity and role confusion. Although arousal is significant for initiating, maintaining, and performing human functions, chronic stress can create mental health problems (Larson & Luthans, 2006). With the infusion of a technology-driven environment in modern times, the stressors have become more dynamic and complicated.

Thus, identifying and understanding the variables that can enhance and alter the capability of an individual to deal with adolescent stressors can be vital for dealing with and managing adolescent stressors. It can also enable interventions to empower students to deal effectively with stressors. In the contemporary world, the trait emotional intelligence (Trait EI) and coping styles have been considered significant attributes affecting various aspects of life. Trait EI has been referred to as a constellation of emotion-related self-perceptions and dispositions, assessed through self-report (Petrides & Furnham, 2003, p. 40). Thus, as a trait, EI is a pattern of behavioural characteristics and self-assessment of one’s capacity to recognize, process, and manage emotion-related information. Trait EI has been associated with happiness (Badri et al., 2021), building relationships, influencing academic performance (DiFabio & Saklofske, 2014), dealing with chronic fatigue, and enhancing prosocial behaviour (Akhtar et al., 2015). It has also been associated with lower cortisol secretion in stressful situations (Martins et al., 2010) and good health status (Laborde et al., 2014).

According to Doron et al. (2013), cognitive and behavioural monitoring processes regulate behavioural and emotional responses to deal with adverse and stressful situations. Over time, human beings develop ways of coping with events that may seem stress-provoking. It is during the middle phase of adolescence that, along with cognitive and social maturity, the coping styles also stabilize in adolescent children (Seiffge-Krenke, 1995). The coping styles are task, emotion, or avoidance-oriented (Endler & Parker, 1994). Based on the nature of the stressor, an appropriate coping style can be employed. Thus, the category or nature of the coping style used may be detrimental in deciding the outcomes while dealing with the stressors of adolescence. Overall, coping enables an individual to deal with stressful and anxiety-provoking situations (Antonietti et al., 2020; Folkman & Moskowitz, 2004; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984; Markova & Nikitskaya, 2017). Thus, it can be mentioned that understanding the relationship between factors that influence stress can be helpful for psychologists, counsellors, and policymakers to devise interventions to deal with adolescent stressors effectively. The ensuing literature review discusses the relationship between Trait EI, coping, and stress.

Trait emotional intelligence and adolescent stress

Prado Gasco et al. (2018) investigated the function of emotions in the relationship between Trait EI, life satisfaction, self-perceived stress, and somatic complaints among school students. The findings indicated a significant association between Trait EI and the markers of well-being among adolescents. Sarrionandia et al. (2018) also reported that emotional intelligence negatively predicted perceived stress through the mediating variable of resilience among students. Arrivillaga et al. (2022) viewed low emotional intelligence (EI) as a vulnerability. Their finding revealed that a lower EI predicted more perceived stress and higher depression symptoms, leading to more problematic social media usage. Likewise, Cejudo et al. (2018) study on Spanish adolescents reported a negative relationship between Trait EI, stress, and social anxiety. Studies have also revealed that high Trait EI facilitates adaptation to stressful environments and is associated with positive outcomes in stressful situations (Ciarrochi et al., 2002). More so, high scores on Trait-EI sub-factors indicated better general health at mental and physical levels in both clinical and healthy populations (Baudry et al., 2018). Zeidner et al. (2016) found that good social support, positive health practices, positive emotions, and adaptive coping practices may be the reasons for well-being.

Trait emotional intelligence and coping styles

Coping with stressful life events is the use of precise behavioural and psychological ways that individuals utilize to respond to endure, control, or minimize the effect of stress in life (Watson et al., 2008). Fteiha and Awwad (2020) examined the association between EI and coping styles among undergraduate students. They reported a significant, positive association between EI and active emotional and problem-focused coping in this group of students. Similarly, Antoniou and Drosos (2017) reported a positive correlation between EI and approach coping strategies and an inverse relationship between EI and avoidant coping strategies.

In an earlier study, Noorbakhsh et al. (2010) found a positive relationship between EI with problem-focused coping and positive emotion-focused coping styles. On the other hand, an inverse association was reported with a negative emotion-focused coping style. Furthermore, twenty-eight percent of the variance related to problem-focused coping style was predicted by emotional intelligence subscales. Thus, the findings indicated that the higher the EI, the less likely the individual would use negative emotion-focused coping strategies for managing stress. These findings align with the findings of Saklofske et al. (2007), who also found a positive association of EI with rational problem-focused coping. Further, Abdollahi et al. (2016) indicated that those high on emotional intelligence were less likely to employ negative emotion-oriented coping techniques while facing stressful situations.

Coping style and adolescent stress

Mathew et al. (2015) explored various reasons for stress in adolescents’ lives and its impact on their mental health. They found that uncontrollable events like accidents and relocation produced more stress than controllable events, such as appearing for exams or getting low grades. Adolescents frequently used coping strategies like planning, positive reframing, and active coping. Also, it has been found that stress significantly alters adolescent mental health by enhancing anxiety and somatic complaints. They also demonstrate aggressive behaviour by breaking the rules. Parikh et al. (2019) found that Indian adolescents mainly used emotion-focused coping strategies (e.g. procrastination) compared with problem-focused coping (e.g. seeking information).

In a study on Australian adolescents, Downey et al. (2010) found that non-productive coping methods influenced the associations between emotional management and control and participation in internalizing and externalizing problematic behaviours. However, issue-focused and non-productive coping techniques partially mediated the connection between problem behaviours, comprehension, recognition, and expression of emotions. Therefore, adolescents’ emotional capacities may need to be developed to augment their coping skills, leading to improved psychological outcomes in the long run.

The preceding review of the research done in the past two decades succinctly indicates that most studies concerning Trait EI, coping, and adolescent stressors have been on the Western adolescent population in countries like Spain (Arrivillaga et al., 2022; Cejudo et al., 2018), Sweden (Anniko et al., 2019), Switzerland (Antonietti et al., 2020), Netherlands (Garnefski et al., 2002), Germany (Laborde et al., 2014), Russia (Markova & Nikitskaya, 2017), Australia (Ciarrochi et al., 2002; Downey et al., 2010), and Mexico (Veytia-López et al., 2019). However, research studies on adolescents in the eastern part of the world are rare. Few available studies in countries like India (Bindu & Thomas, 2006; Mathew et al., 2015; Parikh et al., 2019), Iran (Abdollahi et al., 2016), and China (She et al., 2022) have either analysed the role of stress on adolescents or have analysed the relationship of Trait EI or coping on adolescent stress independently. Thus, the available literature indicates that rarely any study has been conducted to investigate the mediating role of coping styles (task-focused, avoidance-focused, emotion-focused) in the relationship between Trait EI and adolescent stress.

Present study

The present study explored the relationship between Trait EI, coping styles, and adolescent stress. Mainly, this study investigated whether coping styles (task, avoidance, and emotion-oriented) can mediate the relationship between Trait EI and stress.

Method

Participants

The study included 357 school students (203 females and 154 males) with a mean age of 15.33 years (SD = 1.271) from various private schools in Delhi, India. The mean age of female students was 15.27 (SD = 1.226) and 15.38 (SD = 1.339) for males. The survey was conducted online using Google Forms. In addition, the forms were circulated using email. Sixty-four students belonged to ninth grade (17.93%), one hundred and six to tenth grade (29.69%), one hundred to eleventh grade (28.01%), and eighty-seven were students of twelfth grade (24.37%). The inclusion criteria were adolescents studying in Indian schools between thirteen and seventeen years. Therefore, adolescents above seventeen years and below thirteen years were excluded.

Procedure

A cross-sectional study was designed to assess the relationship between Trait EI, coping styles, and adolescent stress using self-report measures. Demographic details like age and gender were also collected from the participants. A purposive sampling procedure was employed to collect data from respondents from various schools in Delhi. After obtaining consent from the school authorities and parents, the online Google form was circulated to the students using email. A total of 389 responses were received. However, the incomplete forms with higher than ten percent missing responses in each scale were omitted. Thus, the final data from 357 respondents were retained for statistical analysis.

Measures

Demographics questionnaire

Participants were asked to provide their age, gender, class, and school information.

Trait emotional intelligence questionnaire for adolescents short form (TEIQue-ASF)

TEIQue-ASF is a 30-item questionnaire made for the adolescent population (Petrides et al., 2006). The inventory assesses the adolescent on global Trait EI. The items are scored on a seven-point rating scale. In addition, it includes 15 reverse-scored items. The Higher scores indicate higher Trait EI. An example of an item in TEIQue-ASF is ‘It’s easy for me to talk about my feelings to other people.’ The internal consistency for the assessment instrument, as indicated by Cronbach’s alpha value, was 0.80.

Coping inventory for stressful situations (CISS) adolescent

CISS Adolescent is a forty-eight-item assessment instrument that assesses the task (TOC), avoidance (AOC), and emotion-oriented coping (EOC) styles of adolescents (Endler & Parker, 1990). It consists of 16 items each to assess each coping style. The items are scored on a five-point rating scale (01 = not at all, and 05 = very much). Higher scores indicate higher use of the respective coping style. An example of TOC is ‘focus on the problem and see how I can solve it’; AOC is ‘phone a friend,’ and EOC items are ‘blame myself for procrastinating.’ The internal consistency, as indicated by Cronbach’s alpha value for the three dimensions of the inventory, was 0.83, 0.81, and 0.82, respectively, for TOC, AOC, and EOC dimensions.

Adolescent stress questionnaire (ASQ)

ASQ is a 58-item inventory (Byrne et al., 2007). It assesses ten facets of adolescent stress. These ten facets of stress measure the stress resulting from challenges and conflicts faced by adolescents across home, school, and social life, along with the stress due to financial pressures and emerging adult responsibilities. The items are scored on a 5-point Likert scale (01= not at all stressful, to 05= very stressful). The total score on the fifty-eight items was the adolescent stress index. Higher scores indicate higher stress. An example of items in ASQ is ‘lack of understanding by your parents.’ The assessment instrument’s internal consistency, as indicated by Cronbach’s alpha value, was 0.95.

Data analysis

The data collected from the study were analysed using SPSS (IBM SPSS statistics 21) and AMOS (version 28) software. First, Herman’s single-factor test assessed the common method bias in the data set. Then, It was followed by an assessment of multivariate normality using Mardia’s coefficient (Mardia, 1970). Further, the variance inflation factor (VIF) and tolerance value were computed to assess the problem of multicollinearity. A VIF value of less than five and a tolerance value greater than 0.10 indicates that the problem of multicollinearity does not exist among the predictor variables (Hair et al., 2010; Pallant, 2010; Ringle et al., 2015). Further, independent t-tests were conducted to assess adolescent males’ and females’ differences in Trait EI, coping strategies, and stress. As the differences were significant in the current sample, further analysis was done separately for adolescent males and females. So, bivariate correlation coefficients were assessed to find the relationship between trait emotional intelligence, coping styles, and stressors of adolescent life. The strength of the correlation values was interpreted using Cohen’s criteria (Cohen, 1988). A value between .00–.10 indicates a negligible to very weak relationship, .10–.30 indicates a weak association, .30–.50 is moderate, and .50–1.00 is strong.

Further, the role of coping styles (task, avoidance, and emotion-oriented) as mediators were assessed and tested using the bootstrapping method with bias-corrected confidence estimates (Hair et al., 2016; Hayes, 2013). Amos version 28 was used for the assessment. A series of simple multiple regression tests were conducted to determine the effect of the mediator variable (Coping style) (M) on the relationship between the independent variable, Trait EI (X), and the dependent variable, adolescent stress (Y) (Table 3). The effect of Trait EI (X) on coping styles is depicted by path a. Path b shows the effect of coping styles on adolescent stress. The present study obtained a 95% CI of the indirect effects with 5000 bootstrap resamples. For this, first, we tested the effect of Trait EI (X) on Adolescent stress (Y). It is depicted by path c. Then, we assessed the mediating effect of X on Y (a × b) and obtained a 95% CI. If the 95% CI did not cross zero, it indicated a significant mediating effect.

Table 1. Gender differences between males and females for the study variables.

	Males (n = 154)		Females (n = 203)		df	T-test	p	Cohen’s d
	Mean	SD	Mean	SD
Trait EI (0.80)	133.02	21.637	125.41	20.965	355	3.34	.001	.22
TOC (0.83)	59.82	8.643	57.37	9.197	355	2.58	.010	.28
AOC (0.81)	53.68	11.574	52.30	10.643	355	1.15	.251	.12
EOC (0.82)	52.64	10.625	55.28	10.039	355	−2.38	.018	.26
Adolescent stress (.94)	126.92	37.008	139.39	35.082	355	−3.23	.001	.35

Note: values in parentheses are Cronbach alpha values; TOC: Task-oriented coping; AOC: Avoidance-oriented coping; EOC: Emotion-oriented coping.

Table 2. Correlations for the study variable for both the genders.

	TEI	TOC	AOC	EOC	Stress
Trait EI (TEI)	1	.415**	.247**	−.462**	−.432**
Task-oriented coping (TOC)	.261**	1	.298**	.021	−.194**
Avoidance-oriented coping (AOC)	.001	.370**	1	.197**	−.043
Emotion-oriented coping (EOC)	−.621**	.048	.324**	1	.341**
Adolescent Stress	−.482**	−.009	.138	.415**	1

*p < .01; the values above diagonal 1 indicate values for females and below 1 show male values.

Table 3. Mediating model and the mediating effect of coping styles.

	Males			Females
	β(SE)	95% CI	p	β(SE)	95% CI	p
TOC
Indirect effect X→Y (a × b)	0.33(.022)	(.000, .087)	.051	−0.007(.029)	(−.068, .05)	.767
Direct X→Y (c)	−.515 (.068)	(−.632, −.366)	.001	−.424 (.064)	(−.542, −.293)	.000
AOC
Indirect effect X→Y (a × b)	.000(.012)	(−.022, .028)	.934	.017(.018)	(−.015, .061)	.240
Direct X→Y (c)	−.482(.066)	(−.599, −.338)	.001	−.449(.057)	(−.557, −.331)	.000
EOC
Indirect effect X→Y (a × b)	−.117(.056)	(−.233, −.008)	.03	−.083(.034)	(−.160, −.023)	.005
Direct X→Y (c)	−.366(.089)	(−.528, −.178)	.000	−.349(.069)	(−.480, −.209)	.000

TOC: Task-oriented coping; AOC: Avoidance-oriented coping; EOC: Emotion-oriented coping.

Results

The Herman single-factor test indicated that the total variance explained by a single factor was 10.415%. It was significantly lower than the threshold of 50%, meaning no serious issue of common method bias exists with the data (Supplementary Table S1). The results indicated a kurtosis coefficient of 0.056 with a critical ratio of 0.063 for the data assessed (Supplementary Table S2). It showed acceptable multivariate normality (Mardia, 1970). The variance inflation factor and tolerance value for predictor variables ranges between 1.267–1.860 and 0.538–0.789, respectively (Supplementary Table S3). VIF value less than five and tolerance values greater than 0.10 indicate that the problem of multicollinearity does not exist among the predictor variables (Ringle et al., 2015). Correlation analysis also indicated that there are no issues of multicollinearity (Supplementary Table S4).

Independent t-tests compared the total scores of adolescent males and females for variables under study. The independent t-test indicated a significant difference between adolescent males and females regarding Trait EI, task-oriented coping (TOC), emotion-oriented coping (EOC), and overall adolescent stress (Table 1). However, the two genders had no significant difference in avoidance-oriented coping (AOC) styles. Male adolescent students scored higher than female adolescents regarding Trait EI and TOC. Similarly, female adolescent scores were higher on EOC. Overall, stress was higher among adolescent females in comparison to males.

The correlational analysis revealed a significant relationship between Trait EI, coping styles, and adolescent stress among males and females (Table 2). Trait EI had a significant negative relationship with stress. It was similar for adolescent males and females. The correlation values indicated a moderate relationship per Cohen’s criteria (Cohen, 1988). Similarly, Trait EI had a weak positive association with TOC among adolescent males but a moderate positive association among females. Likewise, Trait EI had a positive but weak association with AOC among females. However, no significant correlation was found between Trait EI and AOC among adolescent male students. Trait EI also had a strong negative association with EOC among adolescent males but a moderate negative association with female students. EOC significantly correlated with adolescent stress among adolescent males and female students. The correlation values indicated a moderate association across both genders. TOC had a weak negative correlation with adolescent stress among female students, but no significant association was found among male students. AOC did not demonstrate any correlation with adolescent stress in both groups, namely adolescent males and females. Age had a significant positive but weak association with adolescent stress. But age did not correlate with Trait EI or any of the coping styles (Supplementary Table S4)

The regression analysis revealed a significant total effect of trait emotional intelligence on adolescent stress among adolescent males (β = −0.482, p = 0.001) and females (β = − 0.432, p = 0.001). The present study obtained a 95% CI of the indirect effects with 5000 bootstrap resamples. Table 3 shows the indirect effect of Trait EI on adolescent stress through EOC style among both adolescent males (β = − 0.117; 95% CI: −.235, −.009, p = 0.027) and females (β = − 0.083; 95% CI: −.153, −.020, p = 0.007). The direct effect of Trait EI on adolescent stress among male students (β = − 0.366; 95% CI: −.525, −.179, p = 0.001) and female students (β = − 0.349; 95% CI: −.483, −.205, p = 0.001) and the indirect effect through the mediator indicated the presence of partial mediation by EOC style. Thus, the results showed that Trait EI significantly influenced adolescent stress without and with the mediator variable among adolescent males and adolescent females. It also showed a decrease in the coefficient beta value (β). Further, it also means that EOC is a partial mediator variable for determining the relationship between Trait EI and adolescents’ stress due to a direct and indirect effect (Table 3).

Discussion

The present investigation aimed to assess the relationships between Trait EI, coping styles, and stress among school-going adolescents and the potential mediating role of coping styles (task, avoidance, and emotion-oriented) in the relationship between Trait EI and adolescent stress.

Trait EI had a significant influence on stress among both adolescent males and females. Higher Trait EI among adolescents indicated lower stress among adolescents. Trait EI signifies self-awareness, empathy, optimism, assertiveness, low impulsiveness, and the ability to maintain relationships. These attributes can be cardinal to dealing with the challenges of adolescent life that are mostly related to friends, school, parents, emerging adult responsibilities, or the perceived expectations of others. Thus, Trait EI attributes enable both male and female Indian adolescents to deal with and manage the stressors of adolescent life. Correspondingly, Trait EI had a significant association with task-oriented coping. High Trait EI enabled the adolescents to focus on the problems and directly deal with them. It was true for both male and female Indian adolescents. However, the relationship between Trait EI and emotion-oriented coping was inverse, indicating that as Trait EI increased in Indian adolescents, emotion-oriented coping decreased among them. Emotion-oriented coping includes strategies like procrastination, blaming self, or denial to mitigate emotional stress. It seems that Trait EI reduces these tendencies among adolescents. However, only in Indian female adolescents was there a significant association between Trait EI and avoidance-oriented coping. It indicates that in certain difficult situations, female adolescents with high Trait EI generally focus on avoiding the problem rather than facing it. It may be due to the family’s role expectation from a female child in India, where girls are taught to be non-confrontational. The expectations from parents and society might drive adolescents to select socially preferred and more accepted gender roles in Indian families. However, Parikh et al. (2019) found that pressure from the need to conform to normative gender roles was creating stress among adolescent girls in India. Therefore, probably Indian adolescent girls are using high Trait EI to avoid conflicts to enhance their social acceptability. Thus, the findings of our study indicate that female adolescents use high Trait EI to avoid conflicts. On the other hand, it is possible that the expectation of Indian males to win has contributed to the lack of association we observed among adolescent Indian males.

Task-oriented coping had a significant negative association with adolescent stressors among female adolescents, indicating that they reduced stress as they focused on stressors as challenges to be solved. However, no such association was found among adolescent males. Emotion-oriented coping had a significant positive association with stress among adolescent males and females. Individuals predisposed to maintain higher emotional arousal during emotionally provoking situations prefer emotion-focused coping (Kariv & Heiman, 2005). Thus, strategies like blaming self, procrastination, getting angry, containment, passive resignation, or venting to others may increase arousal and subsequent stress. Therefore, these strategies may not be viable to deal with the type of long-term persistent stressors of adolescent life. These strategies seem to be restrictive in dealing with adolescent stressors. Earlier studies have indicated that emotion-focused coping styles are significantly associated with enhanced behavioural, cognitive, sleep, and mood-related problems (e.g. Kumanova & Karastoyanov, 2013; Orgilés et al., 2021).

Further, only emotion-oriented coping style partially mediated the relationship between Trait EI and adolescent stress among adolescent male and female students. The results indicate that emotion-oriented coping reduces the impact of Trait EI on adolescent stress when emotion-oriented coping is a matter of model. As mentioned earlier, Trait EI can significantly influence an adolescent’s ability to deal with life stressors. It may enable the adolescent to reduce stress. However, utilizing higher emotion-oriented coping seemed detrimental to reducing stress among Indian adolescents. It may be due to the diversity of adolescent stressors and the long-term nature of adolescent stressors. Nevertheless, among adolescents who use less emotion-oriented coping, Trait EI manages to reduce stress. Thus, the current study indicates that out of the three coping styles, only emotion-oriented coping partially mediates the relationship between Trait EI and adolescent stress. The other two styles, task-oriented and avoidance-oriented coping, did not act as mediators.

Further, adolescent males and females in the current Indian sample indicated significant differences in stress, coping styles, and Trait EI. In terms of stress, female adolescents demonstrated more stress than adolescent males. It may be because, in India, even in urban areas, more parental and societal restrictions are imposed on female adolescents than on males. Regarding coping, females tend to use more emotion-focused coping. However, task-oriented coping was higher among males. It may be because Indian parents generally expect their daughters to be caring, thoughtful, and self-sacrificing. In contrast, they expect their sons to be problem solvers and lead their families in the future. For avoidance-oriented coping, there was no difference between the two. These findings differed slightly from the earlier findings of Graves et al. (2021), which indicated no significant gender differences between males and females in problem-focused coping. Trait EI was higher among Indian adolescent males. It was similar to earlier findings that have demonstrated higher EI in Indian males than females (Bindu & Thomas, 2006). However, these findings differ from the earlier studies that were primarily done on non-Indian populations (Joseph & Newman, 2010)

As per the UNFPA (2022) estimates, India will continue to be the country with the youngest population in the world till 2030. In the forthcoming years, today’s adolescents will drive innovations in various sectors like the economy, health, politics, and society. Thus, adolescent well-being can determine the health of any nation. Emotions can be overwhelming at stressful times. It is particularly relevant for adolescents who have seen the dreadful consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, comprehending the relationship between the factors influencing adolescent stressors is significant in managing adolescent stress. The current findings illustrate the relationship between Trait EI, coping styles, and adolescent stress, particularly among Indian adolescents. It seems that strategies like behavioural disengagement and self-blame should not be encouraged in adolescents to deal with stress effectively. The lesser usage of these strategies seems significant for effectively managing adolescent stressors.

Further, Trait EI has emerged as a relevant factor in reducing adolescent stress. However, using an emotion-oriented coping style diminishes the ability of an adolescent to use Trait EI for managing stress. Thus, enhancing emotional intelligence is vital for managing stress among adolescents, and comprehending the type of coping style generally used by adolescents is also significant. Therefore, schools, teachers, counsellors, and parents should monitor adolescents’ coping styles when facing stressful situations. It can enable them to nurture better stress management skills among adolescents.

Limitations

Herman’s single-factor test indicated no significant issues regarding the common method bias. However, as self-administered instruments were used for the study, the bias cannot be completely ruled out. Similarly, using a cross-sectional approach might have reduced the generalizability of the study findings. Further, India is a diverse nation, and the respondents living in a Metropolis mainly constitute the population that has migrated from various other parts of the country. The chances of social and cultural variables influencing the findings also cannot be ruled out. Further, as the assessment instruments were administered online, it may have reduced adolescents’ participation without the internet. Finally, a larger sample comprising an equal number of adolescent males and females from different nations would be needed to generalize the findings on a broader level.

Conclusion

Adolescence is a critical phase of an individual’s life for laying and nurturing the seeds of a healthy and confident adult. Thus, adolescents who are emotionally healthy and competent in facing pressures today will grow into healthy adults. United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the United Nations Sustainable Developmental Goals (SDG-3) have stressed the importance of developing life skills for overall mental health. Investing in the health of today’s adolescents will lay the foundation for a healthy Young India. The findings of the present study can be helpful for psychologists, school counsellors, and behavioural and social scientists to develop customized intervention programs. Emotions are a compelling part of human personality as they can facilitate and obstruct an individual’s growth. The programs focusing on developing trait emotional intelligence in adolescents can teach them to use constructive and positive coping styles to meet the challenges of their academic, personal, and social lives. Similarly, suppose the youth development programs can be tailored to develop emotional intelligence in adolescents. In that case, it will go a long way in creating a stress-resistant Indian adolescent population that can handle the inevitable stressors of day-to-day living and move ahead on the path of positive growth and development.

Ethics statement

The study was conducted in accordance with the declaration of Helsinki. The study was non-interventional and was approved by the Manipal University Jaipur Directorate of Research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/02673843.2023.2292070

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jasmine Arora

Jasmine Arora is a Ph.D. research scholar at the Department of Psychology, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Manipal University Jaipur, India. She is also a licensed clinical psychologist from the Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI).

V Vineeth Kumar

V Vineeth Kumar. Ph.D., is an Associate Professor (Sr.) at the Department of Psychology, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Manipal University Jaipur, India, where he teaches clinical and applied psychology courses. His current research interest includes spiritual and emotional intelligence and holistic well-being in youth.