The relationship between emotional intelligence,library anxiety,and academic achievement among the university students

Abstract

Emotional intelligence has a strong link with academic anxieties. It is apparent from the published literature that a student with high emotional intelligence would face low academic anxiety and vice versa. Similarly, library anxiety, which is an academic anxiety, also affects students’ academic performance. Library anxiety of students may increase or decrease along with their ability to understand and manage their own emotions and those of others. However, there is a dearth of literature on the relationship between these two concepts. Data regarding these concepts were collected from university undergraduates. Findings established significant relationships between emotional intelligence, library anxiety and academic performance among the participants. This study has practical implications for academicians and professional librarians to deal with the library anxiety of students and their academic performance.

Keywords

Academic performance emotional intelligence library anxiety Pakistan university students

Introduction

It is a natural phenomenon for people facing a variety of situations to become emotive and take appropriate actions as the circumstances demand. Emotions are strong sources of information and, therefore, largely influence our thinking, actions, behavior, communication, and decision making. If one has the ability to understand and manage one’s own emotions and those of others appropriately, it would have a positive impact on one’s everyday life activities. How successfully one responds to a particular situation based on intelligent use of the emotions-laden information is very important. This capability was named emotional intelligence (EI). According to Bar-On (2006) the concept of EI was introduced about a century ago. However, the phrase “Emotional Intelligence” was coined for the first time by Salovey and Mayer (1990: 189) who defined it as the “ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions”. This concept was popularized by Goleman (1995) in his book, Working with Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter more than IQ. He made a claim that “Emotional Intelligence” (EI) could be more powerful than “Intelligence Quotient” (IQ). His claim attracted many researchers to focus on the idea of EI that comprised a number of skills/abilities.

Library anxiety (LA) is an academic anxiety that might affect students’ performance in the academic environment. It is “confusion, fear, and frustration felt by a library user, especially someone lacking experience, when faced with the need to find information in a library” (Reitz, 2014). Library anxiety manifests students’ negative feelings about the size of library, knowledge of the library, use and library search-skills, etc. (Bostick, 1992; Kuhlthau, 1991; Mellon, 1986). It affects students’ performance in different academic areas, e.g. making citations (Jiao et al., 2008), computer attitude (Mizrachi and Shoham, 2004), and academic procrastination, etc. (Onwuegbuzie and Jiao 2000). The academic performance of students demands high EI skills (Parker et al., 2004) and lack or low level of LA (Jiao et al., 2008) because both these concepts have been considered as predictors of their academic achievement. Thus, it is assumed that there should be some kind of relationship between these concepts. Therefore, this study was conducted with the purpose to identify the association, if any, between EI and LA among students.

Statement of the problem

The power of emotions cannot be underestimated because these influence about every aspect of an individual’s life. Emotions, according to Panju (2008), are feelings which contain valuable data/information. Emotions directly affect the academic learning process, behavior, psychological health, and human relationships. Thus, those students who use emotions-laden information in a smart way (emotionally intelligent) usually become successful in the academic environment because they possess higher academic motivation and achievement ability, better problem-solving and planning skills, and positive attitude towards school and learning. Apart from emotions, the library and information science literature has revealed that there is another important factor, i.e. library anxiety, which also has an influence on students’ learning and academic performance. LA is specific to the library environment and is unrelated to general trait anxiety in students (Jiao and Onwuegbuzie, 1999). It is a type of academic anxiety which constrains students to avoid library use as well as making them reluctant to ask librarians for help.

Students with the ability of perceiving, managing, and utilizing their emotions with higher level of EI have been proven to have a lower level of academic anxieties (Khaledian et al., 2013; Rouhani, 2008). Earlier literature on LA has acknowledged the existence of emotional problems of library-anxious students regarding: the information resources, library size, library knowledge, library staff, and mechanical barriers, etc. that are considered as the sources of students’ LA (Janaki and Harun, 2015; Mellon, 1986). So, it is assumed that students with the abilities of identifying, understanding and recognizing (perceiving), managing and utilizing of his/her own emotions and those of others would possibly overcome their negative emotions regarding the library and would therefore, comparatively, experience lower LA. Thus, there was a need to study the relationship between these two concepts and also their relationship with academic achievement in terms of grade point average (GPA). This research will fill gap in the literature of EI and LA and their associates.

Research objective and questions

This study was designed to investigate the relationship between emotional intelligence, library anxiety, and academic achievement among undergraduate university students. The following research questions were framed to achieve this objective:

What is the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI), library anxiety (LA), and academic achievement (GPA) among undergraduate university students?

What is the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI), library anxiety (LA), and academic achievement (GPA) among undergraduates of different subject areas from different types of universities?

Delimitation of the study

There are two views about emotional intelligence (EI) in the literature. One is that EI is a set of cognitive abilities to understand and process emotions-related information. That is pure EI which is irrespective of personality traits and social competencies. The other view is that EI is a set of emotional, personal, and social competencies. This study is limited to the first view of EI.

Literature review

Emotional intelligence: Implications for anxieties

The insufficiency in EI abilities is a susceptibility factor in the development of academic anxieties. For example, Chao (2003) studied the relationship between foreign language classroom anxiety and EI among 360 college students. For this purpose, Chao utilized the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) and Developing Emotional Intelligence Skills (EDEIS) instruments. A significant relationship was found between EI and foreign language anxiety. Rouhani (2008) found a considerable change in both EI skills and foreign language anxiety scores of students in the experimental group compared to those students in the control group. The results indicated that increase in the score of EI skills of the experimental group influenced and decreased the score of the same group in foreign language anxiety. Pekrun and Stephens (2012) argued that emotion regulation by students, in an academic setting, develops positive emotions that help them to prevent arousal of negative emotions. Laripour and Nejad (2013) established a negative and significant relationship (at p< 0.1) between learning anxiety and EI skills among Iranian students. Malik et al. (2013) found a significantly negative correlation between EI and test anxiety (at p< .05) among a sample of 148 Pakistani intermediate students. Similar results were found by Khaledian et al. (2013) among the accounting students. They also reported a meaningful positive correlation between students’ EI and their academic performance.

SeyyedHosseini et al. (2014) investigated the relationship between EI and LA among a sample of 700 Iranian students and found a significant negative relationship between the two. They used the normalized Questionnaire of Siberia Shrink’s Emotional Intelligence (Mansouri, 2001) and the Localized Questionnaire of Bostick’s Library Anxiety scale (LAS) (Jowkar and Taherian, 2008). Earlier studies have questioned the use of Bostick’s LAS for its limitations in the current digital library environment (Kwon, 2004) as well as in a different, non-English-speaking, culture (Anwar et al., 2004). Similarly, Goleman’s (1998) model is a combination of cognitive and personality traits. However, this study is based on pure cognitive abilities of students regarding emotions. Thus, measuring cognitive abilities for understanding and managing emotions and using a new library anxiety scale in a different culture is significant and unique to the present study. Apart from the academic anxieties, emotional intelligence also has an established association with other types of anxieties such as: state-trait anxiety (Extremera and Pizarro, 2006), generalized anxiety disorder (Lizeretti and Extremera, 2011), competitive anxiety (Torkfar et al., 2011), communication anxiety (Fall et al., 2013), and social anxiety disorder (Diaz-Castela et al., 2013).

Emotional intelligence and library anxiety: Implications for common facets

The published literature of EI and LA has shown that some academic factors have recognized relationships with both these concepts. For example, Matteson et al. (2013) established a positive relationship between EI and information literacy skills of students whereas Battle (2004) found that information literacy instructions have a negative relationship with LA. In other words, information literacy instructions are helpful in developing information literacy skills that lead to the decrease of LA. However, the influence of a student’s emotions in the process of gaining information literacy instructions need to be understood. Hen and Goroshit (2014) and Chow (2011) found that students with low EI reported academic procrastination in their studies which has also been found as significantly associated with LA (Onwuegbuzie and Jiao, 2000; Onwuegbuzie et al., 2004). Jiao et al. (2008) studied the effect of LA on citation errors and quality of reference lists in 93 doctoral dissertation proposals in Education. The findings established a multivariate relationship between LA, citation errors and quality of reference lists. This study also recognized the influential role of EI on citation errors and quality of reference lists. Kumar et al. (2012) found a positive relationship between students’ EI and their computer attitude. Jiao and Onwuegbuzie (2004), who investigated the relationship between computer attitude and LA found a strong multivariate relationship between the two.

The literature reviewed above indicates that some common academic characteristics, such as information literacy, computer attitude, and academic procrastination have association with the concepts of EI and LA. Thus, if there is an association between EI and LA then it connotes that there is also some kind of relationship between these concepts. This possible relationship has not been fully explored before. Therefore, the need was felt for the investigation of the relationship between EI and LA among students of different academic subjects in order to determine if there was any relationship between the two. Understanding these concepts and their relationship, if any, will help in designing future information literacy programs and dealing with library-anxious students. The results will, hopefully, be useful for library professionals working on the issue of LA of users and for academicians working on the emotion-related problems of students. The ultimate impact will, definitely, be on students’ academic performance.

Methodology

Study design

The concepts of EI and LA have been clearly identified and quantified in earlier research (Anwar et al. 2012; Bar-On, 2006; Bostick, 1992; Mayer et al., 2002; Schutte et al., 1998; Van Kampen, 2004). Therefore, the quantitative research method, using a questionnaire, was considered as the most suitable for this study. The questionnaire survey usually helps in collecting a large amount of data in a short period of time and provides a quantitative or numeric description of a population’s attitude (Creswell, 2009). The research design used was correlational. The techniques of bi-variate correlations were used for recognizing relationships between EI, LA, and GPA.

Research population and site

The fourth-year undergraduate students of three different subject areas from three different universities were the target population of this study. The subject areas selected were: electrical engineering from the University of Engineering and Technology; social sciences from the University of Peshawar; and crop production sciences from the University of Agriculture, Peshawar. These are the key subject areas taught in these universities which were chosen because of their maturity, diverse academic disciplines, and extensive academic and research activities. Also, these universities were adjacent to each other and easily accessible to the researchers. The permission to conduct the study was obtained from the Dean of each faculty and the concerned class instructor. Pakistan does not have a legal requirement for an institutional review board. The total population comprised 896 fourth-year students in which 196 were from electrical engineering, 345 from social sciences, and 355 from crop production sciences.

The rationale behind the selection of this population was that the fourth-year students become more mature and library acquainted at this stage of their study. They need to regularly visit and use the library for completing their class assignments, projects, and theses. Thus, the selection of a multi-disciplinary population might provide a better insight into the relationship between emotional intelligence, library anxiety, and academic performance.

Data collection instruments

Instrument for emotional intelligence

Two separate standard instruments were used for data collection. Data regarding EI were collected via the Schutte Emotional Intelligence Scale which comprises 33 items and comparatively requires less time to complete (Schutte et al., 1998). The reasons behind selection of this scale were:

It is a self-report inventory/scale which focuses only on typical EI;

The Schutte Emotional Intelligence Scale is based on Salovey and Mayer’s (1990) ability model of EI. The present study is based on the definition of this model;

The Schutte Emotional Intelligence Scale was concerned with the emotional abilities only and not with the personality or social skills (Schutte et al., 2009: 129). This study is only concerned with the emotional ability, not personality or social skills such as leadership, happiness, optimism, flexibility, etc.

The Schutte Emotional Intelligence Scale uses a 5-point Likert type scale, from 1, strongly disagree to 5, strongly agree, for the measurement of each of the 33 items/statements. The factor analytic studies of Petrides and Furnham (2000), Ciarrochi et al. (2001), and Saklofske et al. (2003) recommended a four-factor solution for the 33 items of the scale which were: Perception of Emotions, Managing Own Emotions, Managing Others’ Emotions, and Utilization of Emotions. Further, the previous literature clearly shows the applicability and suitability of the Schutte’s EI Scale in about every type of culture (Brackett and Mayer, 2003; Carmeli, 2003; Carmeli and Josman, 2006; Schutte et al., 1998, 2009).

Instrument for library anxiety

The earlier literature has indicated that Bostick’s LAS is now outdated and not suitable for measuring LA in the current, particularly, digital library environment (Kwon, 2004, 2008) as well as for a non-American cultural group (Anwar et al., 2004). Van Kampen’s (2004) scale was developed for postgraduate students and would not be suitable for undergraduate students. Therefore, the option for the present study was AQAK, a new library anxiety scale which had been developed for undergraduate students and was statistically 90% reliable (Anwar et al., 2012). It comprises 40 statements grouped into five factors which are: information resources (CA = 0.723); library staff (CA = 0.843); user knowledge (CA = 0.772); library environment (CA = 0.758); and user education (CA = 0.625) (Anwar et al., 2012). LA associated with these five factors has been separately studied on the same population. The factor user education was found to be the largest and library environment was found to be the smallest source of LA for the students (Jan et al., 2016a). Further, each statement of the AQAK LA scale measures the level of LA on a 5-point Likert type scale with values ranging from 1, strongly disagree to 5, strongly agree (Anwar et al., 2012).

Data collection and analysis procedures

The questionnaires were administered to students during their class hours with the help of Class Representatives. Students’ consent was sought by signing the consent form. All students (n = 861/896) who were present on the day and time of distribution of questionnaires showed their consent for participation in the study. A total of 35 students were either absent or out of the classrooms when the questionnaires were distributed. The data were collected during the fall semester of 2014.

A total of 738 filled questionnaires were collected. Thirteen questionnaires (five from electrical engineering and four each from social sciences and crop production sciences) were rejected due to either being incomplete or with invalid responses. The remaining 725 questionnaires gave a response rate of 84.20% which was quite high. The data were processed using SPSS version 20.0.

Results and discussion

Demographic characteristics of the respondents

A total of 725 (565, 77.93% male and 160, 22.07% female) students fully responded to the questionnaires. Out of these 725 respondents, 22.76% were from electrical engineering, 38.48% from the social sciences, and 38.76% from crop production sciences. A large number of students (39.59%) had achieved their GPA in the range of 3.01–3.50/4.00, followed by 26.21% in the range of 2.51–3.0. Together, 61.10% of the respondents achieved 3.00 or above.

Normality distribution of data

The normality of data regarding emotional intelligence (EI) and library anxiety (LA) was checked by producing their histograms. Figure1 represents the histogram of the averages of EI scores which approximate a normal bell-shaped curve. Similarly, the LA data have also normal distribution (Figure 2).

Figure1.

Histogram of averages of emotional intelligence scores.

Figure 2.

Histogram of averages of library anxiety scores.

Reliability of scales

The Schutte’s EI scale appeared to have good internal consistency in this study. The overall Cronbach’s alpha (CA) value (i.e. .85) and separately calculated CA values for the students of electrical engineering (.87), crop production sciences (.84), and social sciences (.84) clearly showed that these internal reliabilities closely match the .87 reported by Schutte et al. (1998). Similarly, the AQAK LA scale was found to have good internal consistency with an overall CA value of .82 and separately calculated CA values for the students of electrical engineering (.83), crop production sciences (.77), and social sciences (.82).

Correlation between emotional intelligence, library anxiety, and academic achievement

The Pearson’s correlation was conducted to assess the correlation between EI, LA, and GPA among the 725 respondents of the study. The results are presented in Table 1. The correlation analysis established significant relationships (at p< 0.01) between EI, LA, and GPA of students. The correlation coefficient between EI and LA was found to be -.270. This shows that there was an inverse relationship between EI and LA, meaning that an increase in EI would result in a decrease in LA and vice versa. The correlation between EI and GPA for these respondents was positive and significant (r = .291, p< 0.01). The correlation analysis also established a negative and significant relationship (r = -.213, p< 0.01) between LA and GPA of the students (Table 2) meaning that if there was an increase in one the other decreased and vice versa. This relationship confirms the trends found in earlier studies (e.g. Doris et al., 2015; Jiao and Onwuegbuzie, 1997) in the sense that students with low LA would have made frequent library visits and had, definitely, utilized library resources that had a positive impact on their GPA. On the other hand, library-anxious students avoided the use of library and, therefore, performed poorly on their academic tasks.

Table 1.

Correlation between emotional intelligence, library anxiety, and grade point average (N = 725).

		Emotional intelligence	Library anxiety	Grade point average
Emotional intelligence	Pearson correlation	1	–.270^**	.291^**
Emotional intelligence	Sig. (2-tailed)		.000	.000
Library anxiety	Pearson correlation	–.270^**	1	–.213^**
Library anxiety	Sig. (2-tailed)	.000		.000
Grade point average	Pearson correlation	.291^**	–.213^**	1
Grade point average	Sig. (2-tailed)	.000	.000

Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

Table 2.

The correlation comparison between emotional intelligence, library anxiety, and grade point average on the basis of area of study.

Area of study			Emotional intelligence	Library anxiety	Grade point average
ElectricalEngineering	Emotional intelligence	Pearson correlation	1	–.098	.370^**
	Emotional intelligence	Sig. (2-tailed)		.211	.000
	Library anxiety	Pearson correlation	–.098	1	–.149
	Library anxiety	Sig. (2-tailed)	.211		.057
	GPA	Pearson correlation	.370^**	–.149	1
	GPA	Sig. (2-tailed)	.000	.057
Crop ProductionSciences	Emotional intelligence	Pearson correlation	1	–.256^**	.226^**
	Emotional intelligence	Sig. (2-tailed)		.000	.000
	Library anxiety	Pearson correlation	–.256^**	1	–.098
	Library anxiety	Sig. (2-tailed)	.000		.100
	GPA	Pearson correlation	.226^**	–.098	1
	GPA	Sig. (2-tailed)	.000	.100
Social Sciences	Emotional intelligence	Pearson correlation	1	–.306^**	.167^**
	Emotional intelligence	Sig. (2-tailed)		.000	.005
	Library anxiety	Pearson correlation	–.306^**	1	–.180^**
	Library anxiety	Sig. (2-tailed)	.000		.003
	GPA	Pearson correlation	.167^**	–.180^**	1
	GPA	Sig. (2-tailed)	.005	.003

Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

Subject area-wise differences in correlations of emotional intelligence, library anxiety, and grade point average among the respondents

The Pearson’s correlation tests were performed between EI, LA, and GPA with the option of data → split file → compare groups in SPSS so as to examine the subject area-wise differences in the relationship between these variables. The purpose was to find out whether the same type of correlation existed between EI, LA, and GPA among the respondents of three subject areas. The analysis yielded some interesting results which are presented in Table 2.

The relationship was not significant between EI and LA and between LA and GPA among students of electrical engineering. However, the relationship of EI with GPA appeared to be positive and significant (r = .370, p< 0.01). This means that higher or lower EI level of engineering students had no significant relationship with their apprehension, nervousness, and anxiety regarding the library-related activities. But, the electrical engineering students who were emotionally more intelligent performed academically better and obtained a higher GPA.

The correlation analysis revealed a negatively significant relationship (r = -.256, p< 0.01) between EI and LA among the students of crop production sciences. Among the same group of students, a positive and significant correlation appeared between EI and GPA (r = .226, p< 0.01). However, the relationship between LA and GPA appeared to be non-significant. These results suggest that those students of crop production sciences who were emotionally more intelligent experienced a lower level of LA and those who were emotionally less intelligent experienced a higher level of LA. The emotionally intelligent students achieved a higher GPA and vice versa. But, similar to the electrical engineering students, their LA had no impact on their GPA.

The Pearson’s correlation established a negatively significant relationship (r = -.306, p< 0.01) between EI and LA among the students of social sciences. The relationship between EI and GPA among these students appeared to be positive and significant (r = .167, p< 0.01). The relationship between LA and GPA was negative and significant (r = -.180, p< 0.01). These findings indicate that more emotionally intelligent students experienced low LA and vice versa. They achieved a higher GPA as compared to those who had low EI. And those with low LA achieved a higher GPA as compared to those who experienced a higher level of LA.

The non-significant association of the two variables (i.e. EI and LA) among the respondents of electrical engineering was surprising which contradicted the result of SeyyedHosseini et al. (2014). Similarly, results regarding the association between LA and GPA among the respondents of electrical engineering and crop production sciences contradicted the results of Jiao et al. (1996) and Jiao and Onwuegbuzie (1997). These authors found significant association between LA and the GPA of students.

Correlations between the sub-factors of emotional intelligence and library anxiety

The association between the sub-factors of EI and LA were also examined with the help of Pearson’s Correlation Coefficients (Table 3). The correlation analysis revealed that two sub-factors of library anxiety (information resources and library environment) had no significant relationship with the sub-factor utilization of emotions of EI. Similarly, user education of LA appeared to have no significant relationship with the perception of emotions of EI. The user knowledge and library staff of LA were found in significantly negative association with all the sub-factors of EI (perception of emotions, managing own emotions, managing others’ emotions, and utilizations of emotions). Also, all the four sub-factors of EI appeared to be negatively and significantly correlated with the overall LA of the students. The data clearly show that students with high ability of managing others’ emotions experienced lower LA, associated with all the five factors of the AQAK, and vice versa. Similarly, those students who were smart in perception of emotions and managing own emotions experienced low LA associated with all its sub-factors except user education.

Table 3.

Correlations between the sub-factors of emotional intelligence and the AQAK (N = 725).

Sub-factors of EI		Sub-factors of library anxiety					Overall library anxiety
Sub-factors of EI		Information resources	User knowledge	Library environment	Library staff	User education	Overall library anxiety
Perception of emotion	Pearson correlation	–.104^**	–.240^**	–.090^*	–.160^**	.057	–.182**
Perception of emotion	Sig. (2-tailed)	.005	.000	.015	.000	.126	.000
Managing own emotion	Pearson correlation	–.149^**	–.232^**	–.187^**	–.227^**	.035	–.251**
Managing own emotion	Sig. (2-tailed)	.000	.000	.000	.000	.349	.000
Managing others’ emotion	Pearson correlation	–.120^**	–.194^**	–.106^**	–.174^**	–.171^**	–.237**
Managing others’ emotion	Sig. (2-tailed)	.001	.000	.004	.000	.000	.000
Utilization of emotions	Pearson correlation	–.052	–.237^**	–.072	–.103^**	–.162^**	–.197**
Utilization of emotions	Sig. (2-tailed)	.158	.000	.052	.005	.000	.000

Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed); *Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

Thus, it is clear from these results that all five factors of EI are relevant to levels of LA. Therefore, students should be trained to enhance their EI in order to help them overcome about every type of academic anxiety.

Subject area-wise differences in correlations of the sub-factors of emotional intelligence and library anxiety

The relationships between the sub-factors of EI and those of the AQAK Library Anxiety Scale were compared among the students of the three subject areas. Only the factor user knowledge of the AQAK appeared to be negatively and significantly associated with all the sub-factors of EI among the students of electrical engineering and social sciences (Table 4). That is, an increase in the abilities of perceiving emotions, managing own and others’ emotions, and utilization of emotions would enhance students’ knowledge about the library. Similarly, the factors library environment and library staff appeared to be in negative and significant association with all the sub-factors of EI among students of crop production sciences.

Table 4.

Area of study-wise comparison: Correlations between the sub-factors of emotional intelligence and library anxiety.

Area of study	Sub-factors of EI		Sub-factors of library anxiety
Area of study			Information resources	User knowledge	Library environment	Library staff	User education	Overall library anxiety
Electrical Engineering	Perception of emotion	Pearson correlation	.043	–.369^**	.114	–.073	.019	–.087
	Perception of emotion	Sig. (2-tailed)	.580	.000	.144	.350	.804	.268
	Managing own emotion	Pearson correlation	–.074	–.363^**	–.090	–.140	.106	–.180^*
	Managing own emotion	Sig. (2-tailed)	.346	.000	.251	.072	.175	.021
	Managing others’ emotion	Pearson correlation	.038	–.276^**	.213^**	.012	–.244^**	–.081
	Managing others’ emotion	Sig. (2-tailed)	.625	.000	.006	.875	.002	.300
	Utilization of emotions	Pearson Correlation	.129	–.311^**	.285^**	.135	–.136	.034
	Utilization of emotions	Sig. (2-tailed)	.100	.000	.000	.084	.082	.660
Crop Production Sciences	Perception of emotion	Pearson correlation	–.144^*	–.111	–.136^*	–.171^**	.154^**	–.158^**
	Perception of emotion	Sig. (2-tailed)	.016	.064	.022	.004	.010	.008
	Managing own emotion	Pearson correlation	–.183^**	–.152^*	–.246^**	–.290^**	.202^**	–.258^**
	Managing own emotion	Sig. (2-tailed)	.002	.010	.000	.000	.001	.000
	Managing others’ emotion	Pearson correlation	–.151^*	–.127^*	–.163^**	–.198^**	.039	–.199^**
	Managing others’ emotion	Sig. (2-tailed)	.011	.033	.006	.001	.519	.001
	Utilization of emotions	Pearson correlation	–.091	–.156^**	–.189^**	–.199^**	.060	–.207^**
	Utilization of emotions	Sig. (2-tailed)	.127	.009	.001	.001	.316	.000
Social Sciences	Perception of emotion	Pearson correlation	–.176^**	–.276^**	–.192^**	–.234^**	.022	–.293^**
	Perception of emotion	Sig. (2-tailed)	.003	.000	.001	.000	.718	.000
	Managing own emotion	Pearson correlation	–.126^*	–.207^**	–.144^*	–.180^**	–.065	–.234^**
	Managing own emotion	Sig. (2-tailed)	.035	.000	.016	.003	.278	.000
	Managing others’ emotion	Pearson correlation	–.103	–.136^*	–.129^*	–.157^**	–.126^*	–.209^**
	Managing others’ emotion	Sig. (2-tailed)	.086	.023	.032	.009	.035	.000
	Utilization of emotions	Pearson correlation	–.067	–.214^**	–.102	–.072	–.234^**	–.218^**
	Utilization of emotions	Sig. (2-tailed)	.263	.000	.088	.229	.000	.000

Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed); *Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

The Pearson’s correlation matrix revealed some interesting results regarding the type of relationship between the sub-factors. The sub-factors of EI, managing others’ emotions and utilization of emotions showed significantly positive relationship with the sub-factor library environment of LA among engineering students. Whereas, the sub-factors perception of emotions and managing own emotions of EI had significantly positive relationship with the user education of LA among students of crop production sciences. However, among the social sciences students no positive relationship was found between the sub-factors.

All the sub-factors of EI were found in negatively significant association with total LA scores among the students of crop production sciences and social sciences. However, the results were different for engineering students. The differences found among students in these subject areas might involve several possible reasons. These could be due to disciplinary or institutional differences, centralized or decentralized library systems, academic culture, and gender of professionals in each library system. Also, these students were using their respective libraries with varying frequencies. Their use of library resources varied according to their field of study. The students of crop production and social sciences used their libraries more frequently than those of electrical engineering. The possible reason is that the students of engineering are textbook oriented. The dissimilarities of the current findings might also involve some other variables that needed to be explored. In sum, the results are quite interesting and, therefore, further research is suggested in this direction so as to make the phenomenon clear.

Discussion

The negative and significant relationship between emotional intelligence and library anxiety indicates that an increase in one will decrease the other and vice versa. If a student possesses the abilities of perceiving and understanding of emotions, the abilities of managing their own emotions and those of others, and the abilities of utilization of emotions, he/she would experience no or a low level of LA. But, a student with low EI abilities will be vulnerable to LA. Thus, the type of correlation between EI and LA as established in the present study confirms and supports the earlier literature in this regard. Many previous studies (Ebrahimi and Khoshsima, 2014; Khaledian et al., 2013; Malik et al., 2013; Mohammadi and Mousalou, 2012; SeyyedHosseini et al., 2014; and Valizadeh and Alavinia, 2013) found that EI had negatively significant relationship with different types of academic anxieties, including LA. Thus, the trend identified in the previous research has been endorsed by the results of the present research.

Those students who had higher EI abilities attained higher academic performance in terms of GPA as compared to those with lower EI. These findings are consistent with the findings of earlier research that identified a statistically significant correlation between EI and academic performance (Grehan et al., 2011; Nasir and Masrur, 2010; Parker et al., 2004).

The previous literature has shown that LA has an inverse relationship with about every academic aspect of students including their research achievement (Onwuegbuzie and Jiao, 2004), reading ability (Jiao and Onwuegbuzie, 2003), study habits (Jiao and Onwuegbuzie, 2001), learning styles (Onwuegbuzie and Jiao, 1998), and GPA (Jiao and Onwuegbuzie, 1997). The findings of the present study are consistent with those of the literature cited above in that LA of the students has an inverse relationship with their various academic performances including GPA. Therefore, it can be concluded that low or lack of LA can be helpful for students in obtaining a higher GPA. Thus, the academicians and library staff collectively should take steps towards the reduction of students’ LA in order to improve their performance on different academic tasks.

Before running the Pearson’s correlation analysis, the same results were expected regarding the relationship of EI and LA among the respondents of the three subject areas. However, the non-significant association of these two variables among the respondents of electrical engineering was surprising which contradicted the result of SeyyedHosseini et al. (2014). Similarly, results regarding the association between LA and GPA among the respondents of electrical engineering and crop production sciences contradicted the results of Jiao et al. (1996) and Jiao and Onwuegbuzie (1997). These authors found significant association between LA and the GPA of students. However, the results regarding the association between EI, LA and GPA among the social sciences students were supportive of the earlier literature (Jiao and Onwuegbuzie 1997; Jiao et al., 1996; SeyyedHosseini et al., 2014). The dissimilarities of the results on the basis of the field/area of study might be due to disciplinary or institutional differences. This might also involve some other influencing academic/non-academic variables that needed to be explored. Also, this research should be replicated on students from other fields of study to confirm this phenomenon.

An emotionally intelligent individual can better understand a situation and, therefore, can express his/her judgment more accurately. Thus, the emotionally intelligent students had better emotional understanding and expression regarding the physical environment of the library as well as their searching skills. Therefore, the engineering students with higher EI level showed a higher level of LA and vice versa.

Students with high EI are academically more motivated (Roy et al., 2013) and increase their academic knowledge which might possibly include knowledge about the library. That might be the reason that the students with higher EI, in the present study, experienced lower LA associated with user knowledge. However, it was quite surprising that none of the statements from library staff was found in either positive or negative association with total EI score among students of electrical engineering.

Conclusions

Results from the present and those from the previously published research strongly suggest that emotional intelligence is an extremely important factor for success in, not only, academic but also non-academic life. Students with high EI possess very low academic anxieties that keep them better at their mental-health and cognitive performance, particularly academic performance. The present findings also suggest that better emotional perception and other EI skills can be helpful in lowering overall LA. Thus, these findings are useful for library professionals and academicians to understand the important role of EI abilities in LA of students. Because the more they know about EI skills of their students, the more successfully they can scheme and implement methods for lowering students’ LA (Jan et al., 2016b).

The present findings have clearly indicated that LA of students has an impact on their academic performance in terms of their GPA. An observed inverse relationship suggested that those students who were more library-anxious achieved a lower GPA as compared to those who were less anxious. Perhaps, the less anxious students made frequent visits to the library as compared to those who were comparatively more library-anxious. Thus, it can be concluded that for academic success and for a better utilization of library resources it is important for students to be free from library anxiety.

Further, it is concluded from the significant negative relationship between emotional intelligence and library anxiety that by increasing/decreasing one the other will decrease/increase. That is, students with greater skills of EI (perceiving, managing, and regulating of emotions) will experience lower LA and vice versa. It is suggested that enhancing emotional intelligence and information literacy programs should be introduced which would have a greater positive effect on students’ scholastic activities

Recommendations

According to the results regarding the relationship between EI and LA, the university management should consider launching EI training programs and employ certified EI trainers to deliver these. This will have an impact on reducing LA and improving academic performance.

It is unclear from the current findings whether one variable (LA/EI) is the cause of the other (EI/LA). Therefore, further research is suggested on the causal relationship between LA and EI.

The Schutte’s Emotional Intelligence Scale focuses on emotions-related cognitive abilities. It is recommended that utilizing other EI scales such as Bar-On’s Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i) or Emotional and Social Competence Inventory (ESCI) along with the AQAK Library Anxiety Scale should further test the relationship between EI and LA. This will discover whether, apart from mental abilities, library anxiety has an association with social skills and personality traits (e.g. EI models of Goleman, 1998; and Bar-On, 1997) of students or not.

On average, all the students were found to be library-anxious. Therefore, it is recommended that the library staff and teaching faculties should develop and implement information literacy programs for students such as library orientation, information-searching skills, subject focused information literacy programs to reduce their LA.

The teaching faculty should integrate library-based assignments in their curriculum so that their students make frequent visits to the library for utilizing library resources. This will have a definite impact on their academic performance.

The present study was purely quantitative in nature, which had possibly involved respondent’s bias that is always present in a self-report survey. To overcome this limitation, the use of multi-method or mixed method is suggested in future research because the overall strength of a mixed-method research is greater than either qualitative or quantitative research (Creswell, 2009).

Future research with the same objectives should be conducted on Master’s and Doctoral students of different academic disciplines among various cultural groups.

Footnotes

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Author biographies

Sajjad Ullah Jan holds a PhD from the Department of Information Management, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. He has published more than a dozen articles in reputable national and international journals. His areas of research include: library anxiety; emotional intelligence; bibliometrics and scientometrics; and user behavior. Recently, he joined the Department of Library and Information Sciences, Allama Iqbal Open University, Islamabad.

Mumtaz Ali Anwar received a PhD from the University of Pittsburg in 1973 and started a Master’s degree program in Library and Information Science in 1974 at University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. He has also served at King Abdul Aziz University (Saudi Arabia), International Islamic University (Malaysia), and Kuwait University (Kuwait). He has published about a dozen books and a large number of research articles in reputable international journals. His areas of research interest include: information-seeking behavior; library anxiety; continuous professional development; bibliometrics; and information resources. Recently, he retired as honorary professor from the University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan.

Nosheen Fatima Warraich is an associate professor at the Department of Information Management, University of the Punjab, Lahore. She holds a PhD from the same school. She has published many research papers in national and international journals. She came back to her work after successful completion of a postdoctoral fellowship.

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