Emotional intelligence and authenticity as predictors of social anxiety in university students

In this study, the predicting levels of emotional intelligence and authenticity on social anxiety and whether social anxiety differed according to some demographic variables in university students were examined. The study group of this research, which was carried out using a correlational survey model, consists of 386 girls and 217 boys, total of 603 university students studying at Gaziantep University in the 2018-2019 academic year. In the research, Personal Information Form, Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, Emotional Intelligence Assessment Scale and Authenticity Scale were used as data collection tools. The data collected in the study were analyzed with the SPSS 20 package program. In the data analysis, t-test, one-way analysis of variance, Scheffe multiple comparison test, Kruskal Wallis H test, Mann-Whitney U test, Pearson Moments Product-moment Correlation and progressive regression analysis were used for unrelated samples. While the social anxiety scores of demographic variables differed significantly according to gender, class, mother education level, number of siblings and family environment, it was observed that there was no significant difference according to the economic situation of the family, the place where they lived for the longest duration, the education level of the father and the family structure. It has been concluded that there is a negative, moderate, and significant relationship between social anxiety and both emotional intelligence and authenticity. According to the progressive regression analysis, emotional intelligence and authenticity are significant predictors of social anxiety. Emotional intelligence explained the total variance of social anxiety by 21%, while authenticity contributed to the total variance by 3%. The results regarding the findings obtained in the study have been discussed by considering the literature. Keywords: Social Anxiety, Emotional Intelligence, Authenticity, University Students