**1. Introduction**

Occupational stress, also named work stress, is a psychological and physiological phenomenon, generated as a response to various external factors [1]. Resulting from insufficient coping skills with stressors at the workplace, occupational stress is a negatively perceived quality and has negative consequences on mental and physical health. This means that, prior to showing stress symptoms, at first, individuals must perceive a stressor negatively and then they must display inadequate coping abilities. That is, if a source of stress is perceived as a challenge to overcome rather than a threat to avoid, no negative outcomes will appear on mental and physical health [2].

Findings from previous studies have showed associations between high levels of stress at work and a broad range of disturbances, such as chronic fatigue, eating disorders, increased blood pressure, and the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Regarding psychological symptoms, occupational stress has been linked to depression and anxiety, mood disturbance and emotional exhaustion, and a decrease in attention and concentration [3–7].

In addition, significant positive associations were also found between occupational stress and a variety of job-related outcomes, such as intention to leave the workplace or absenteeism [6,8], whereas inverse relationships were estimated with job satisfaction, job performance, job motivation, and organizational commitment [9].

Occupational stress is considered both as a "public concern" and a "personal trouble" [10], because both job-related and individual factors influence it. Regarding job-related factors, some studies have linked occupational stress to several aspects, such as heavy workload, role ambiguity, role conflict, problematic interactions with colleagues or supervisors, inadequate training, job insecurity, low salary, and lack of career prospects [8,11,12].

With regard to individual factors, several studies have revealed significant associations with gender, age, educational level [13–15], and coping styles [16].

Owing to the complexity and heterogeneity of occupational stress, consensus about its assessment is lacking. Though some authors, such as Mensah [17], used a single item simply asking people "*Do you experience stress at work?*", occupational stress is described as

**Citation:** Valenti, G.D.; Faraci, P.; Magnano, P. Emotional Intelligence and Social Support: Two Key Factors in Preventing Occupational Stress during COVID-19. *Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health* **2021**, *18*, 6918. https://doi.org/10.3390/ ijerph18136918

Academic Editors: Paolo Roma, Merylin Monaro and Cristina Mazza

Received: 18 May 2021 Accepted: 22 June 2021 Published: 28 June 2021

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**Copyright:** © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

a multidimensional construct, and overload, work relations, psychological symptoms and physical burdens, pay and benefits, lack of rewards, and organizational policies are among the most widely investigated indicators [8,18,19].

A relevant individual factor related to occupational stress is emotional intelligence (EI), defined as a personality predisposition associated with individuals' tendency to understand their own and others' emotions, to manage their own feelings and their relationships with others [20]. Understanding emotions helps people to be aware of their own and others' behaviors and motivations, whereas managing emotions allows the individuals to navigate their feelings constructively at work. In other words, EI is the individuals' ability to properly handle their own interpersonal and intrapersonal skills, which improves the competence in facing stressors and, consequently, enhances positive outcomes. In addition, Goleman [21] asserts that EI is twice as important as technical skills and more important than IQ in predicting positive outcomes at the workplace, suggesting that people should be judged not according to their own intelligence or professional competence, but rather by their own behaviors toward themselves and others. These premises stress the relevance of taking into account EI in working environments, both to increase productivity and efficiency and to improve workers' wellbeing, job motivation, and job satisfaction.

Indeed, recent studies [18,22–28] have reported that workers with higher EI are more productive at the workplace and can cope with stressors more efficiently. The inverse relationship between EI and occupational stress has been found in different working contexts and for different categories of workers, such as police officers [26], human service professionals [19], bank employees [18], managers [29], health care professionals [30], and college teachers [31]. These findings outline that EI negatively affects occupational stress, regardless of the specific working sector. Although there is wide agreement about the negative association between EI and stress at the workplace, some authors did not show any statistical relationships [32], suggesting that other variables, such as organizational support, are protective factors in stress management rather than EI.

Social support has long been identified as a crucial resource for mitigating threats and challenges [33,34]. It is defined as the extent to which people perceive others as attentive and responsive to their needs. Social support is considered as an important factor in maintaining wellbeing and coping with challenges [35]. It can be assessed as both a global and generalized perceived social support and by discriminating different sources, such as social support from family, friends, and significant others [36–39]. However, in the work context, work-related social support (social support from coworkers and/or supervisors) is mostly investigated because these individuals are considered as the main sources of social support for workers seeking to accomplish their goals and adjust to the workplace [40]. Actually, the results of the studies investigating the effects of work-related social support on the levels of occupational stress are incoherent and inconsistent, suggesting that the kind and the quality of interactions with coworkers and supervisors may function both as protective and risk factors [11,41]. Nevertheless, a limited number of studies examining the relationships between sources of social support and occupational stress outlined the beneficial role in mitigating the degree of stress at the workplace [42,43].

Individuals who are able to understand their own and others' feelings more likely search for support from others in challenging situations [44]. Specifically, they may need others to empathize with their situation, identify their emotional reactions, and provide social support or resources to deal with a stressful situation [45]. Social support is a key candidate to mediate EI and wellbeing. Some theorists suggested that emotional abilities contribute to acquiring social skills, thus enhancing both the quality of relationships and the availability of social support, which in turn leads to a richer sense of wellbeing [46]. Some evidence supported this hypothesis. For example, some authors showed that people with high EI reported greater social support, as well as higher levels of satisfaction and lower grades of psychological distress [36–39,47,48]. Nevertheless, the mediating role of social support in the relationship between EI and occupational stress has not yet been explored. This study aims to fill this gap.

The diffusion of the COVID-19 virus has considerably affected work conditions, leading to new job demands and pressures. Though some working sectors—such as health care professionals—are more vulnerable to occupational stress, given the higher risk of being infected and longer working hours, the current pandemic has greatly influenced each working sector without distinction. In fact, many workers have experienced—and are experiencing—different changes at work, involving an increase or a reduction of working hours, alterations in job tasks and shifts, and a transition toward smart working. In other words, many working sectors have reorganized their environments and structures to accommodate the emerging demands. All these factors may further influence how people feel in their workplaces and affect their level of occupational stress.

A large number of studies are currently examining how the pandemic is changing work conditions and affecting several job-related outcomes [17,49–51]. Among them, some authors have pointed out that both EI and social support have a strong impact in mitigating negative job-related outcomes. For example, Soto-Rubio et al. [52] have emphasized EI's key role in preventing burnout among health care professionals and in improving their levels of job satisfaction, whereas other authors [53] have stressed the influence social support has in enhancing job engagement and job retention intention.

In summary, the relationship between EI and stress has been widely studied, as well as the beneficial role of social support in maintaining health and wellbeing. Further, their protective role in decreasing the levels of stress at work is well documented. However, the joint contribution of EI and social support in reducing occupational stress has not been examined during the COVID-19 lockdown. Given the importance of EI and social support in preventing occupational stress, this study aims to analyze these relationships in the Italian context during the pandemic. Specifically, the goals of this work are (a) to examine the direct relationship between EI and occupational stress, and (b) to test the mediating role of social support (see Figure 1 for a visual representation of our hypotheses). We expect that individuals with higher levels of EI will perceive their work environment as less stressful and will experience less negative health consequences, and that social support can function as a buffer in the relationship between EI and occupational stress. Thus, we formulated the following hypotheses: (i) EI negatively affects occupational stress and (ii) social support mediates the association between EI and occupational stress. Although a similar mediation analysis has not been previously tested, the proposed model derives from the existing literature described above in which the associations between EI and social support, between social support and occupational stress, as well as between IE and occupational stress have been investigated [18,19,28–31,42–44,46].

**Figure 1.** Conceptual model. Path a = association between EI and social support; path b = association between social support and occupational stress; path c = total effect of EI on occupational stress; c = direct effect of EI on occupational stress.

The current study takes into account support from family, friends, and significant others—which are little investigated in this specific field of study—to explore how not work-related sources of support affect occupational stress. This latter is defined as a broad concept in which effects on health (both psychological and physical) and work stressors (job features, career prospects, managerial role, work relationships, work–home interface, and

organizational structure) are indicators. Figure 2 displays the hypothesized relationships among the investigated variables.

**Figure 2.** Hypothesized relationships among the investigated variables. Full lines indicate direct effects; dotted lines indicate indirect effects.

This research contributes to a better understanding of job-related outcomes in the current circumstances.

#### **2. Materials and Methods**
