Abstract

• The main objective of this study was to study the effect of emotional intelligence on social anxiety of undergraduate students from Sagaing University of Education. Moreover, the present study was to find out the differences in emotional intelligence and social anxiety of undergraduate students among demographic characteristics (gender, subject stream and grade). The study adopted a survey research design and employed with a quantitative method. The participants in this study were 954 (male = 485, female = 469) first year, third year and final year students from Sagaing University of Education. As the instrument, the Emotional Intelligence Scale (EIS) with 60-item designed based on Singh (2004) and the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) with 20-item designed based on Mattick and Clarke (1995) were adapted and modified to assess the emotional intelligence and social anxiety of the students. After that, the data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, t test and ANOVA test. The results revealed that demographic characteristic such as gender was found to have significant difference in emotional intelligence and also in social anxiety. Male students had high emotional intelligence and social anxiety than female students. But the students’ subject stream and grade were found to have no influence on their emotional intelligence. Students’ subject stream did not affect their social anxiety but there was significant difference in social anxiety by grade. Final year students experienced less social anxiety than first and third year students. Emotional intelligence and social anxiety of the students were negatively correlated (r=-0.202,p<0.01). Thus, it can be concluded that this study may assist educators in developing a better understanding of the effect of emotional intelligence on social anxiety of the students and it provides an essence that emotional intelligence can be one of the useful tools in handling social anxiety which prevent people from leading the life they want.