Relations Among Self-efficacy, Emotional Intelligence and Perceived Social Support in University Students

The family and social environment have important roles on flowering potential aptitudes. They enhance health and self-efficacy beliefs. The theory of self-efficacy hypothesizes that beliefs of individuals about their aptitude and abilities have good effects on their activities. Self-efficacy belief is the most important determinant of behavior. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship among emotional intelligence, social support and self-efficacy. 269 Tehran University students (191 females and 105 males) who were randomly selected were asked to complete perceived social support, self-efficacy and emotional intelligence scales. Correlation and regression were used to analyze the data. The results showed that self-efficacy had direct and meaningful correlation with all components of emotional intelligence and perceived social support. Emotional intelligence and perceived social support explained 23% and 15% of the variance of self-efficacy, respectively. Common correlation among components of emotional intelligence and perceived social support with self-efficacy was 0.37. Emotional perception (a component of emotional intelligence) could explain 40% of variance of self-efficacy. The family support and friends (the components of perceived social support) could explain 15% of the variance of self-efficacy, and family support has the greatest correlation coefficient with self-efficacy. After controlling the components of perceived social support effect, correlations between components of emotional intelligence and self-efficacy were found statistically meaningful. After controlling emotional perception, it was found that there were not significant correlations between components of perceived social support and self-efficacy. In total, the findings revealed that emotional perception has a greater role in explaining of self-efficacy; and self-efficacy, emotional intelligence and perceived social support have significant and reciprocal effects on each other. The current research confirmed the role of social environment in enhancing the emotional intelligence and self-efficacy.