INFLUENCE OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND SELF EFFICACY ON PERCEIVED SOCIAL SUPPORT AMONG HEALTH WORKERS DURING COVID-19 LOCKDOWN

Abstract

Health workers are classified as front liners globally during the Covid-19 pandemic and their perceived social support is crucial to the application of their emotional intelligence and self-efficacy. The study aimed to examine the influence of emotional intelligence and self-efficacy on perceived social support among health workers during the Covid-19 lockdown in Lagos-Nigeria. The study adopted an ex-post facto cross-sectional survey design and purposely selected 350 participants which comprised 132 male and 218female health workers who were active during the Covid-19 lockdown. Two hypotheses were formulated and tested using multiple regressions and an independent t-test. The results revealed a significant joint and independent influence of emotional intelligence and self-efficacy on perceived social support among health workers during Covid-19 lockdown, while marital status was also found to have a significant influence on perceived social support among health workers. These results demonstrated strong contribution of emotional intelligence, self-efficacy and marital status on social support received by the health workers during the lockdown. Regular training and orientation on understanding the concepts and the need for emotional intelligence and self-efficacy for health workers was recommended by the researchers to see the health setting as being supportive because support may be available, and people may not perceive such due to levels of emotional intelligence and self-efficacy.