Psychological pressure is the foremost impediment to academic success. Psychological stress can impact the inspiration, concentration, awareness, and social interactions of students, which are considered critical factors for students to attain academic success (Unger, 1998). The COVID-19 pandemic crisis has brought into focus the psychological pressure of various affected populations. Due to the coronavirus, strict precautions and delays in starting colleges and universities worldwide are expected to affect the mental health and well-being of students (Cao et al., 2020; UNESCO Education, 2020). Emotions are considered an important trait of the psychology of a student. Students are bound with different emotionally demanding states, such as homework, assignments, quizzes, examinations, and deadlines, are connected that encompass their psychological intentions (Tyng et al., 2017). Students are expected to show patients and positive intentions toward the study. Positive emotions have enhanced the psychological behaviors of students that lead to better outcomes (Corradino and Fogarty, 2016). A few studies have reported the psychological impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on the general community, medical staff, patients, children, and adults (Chen et al., 2020; Yang et al., 2020). However, no comprehensive study on the psychological well-being of Pakistani students, facing the COVID-19 crises, has been conducted to date. Therefore, it is critical to explore what aspects can ease the high psychological pressure rate among students? Although much research has investigated the emotional influences on study devotion, learning and memory, and problem-solving in education sectors for long-term sustainability (Vuilleumier, 2005; Shen et al., 2009; Um et al., 2012), few are acknowledged the impact of e-learning (online classes), and emotional intelligence (EI) on psychological intentions of students, such as study stress, burnout, and performance (Berenson et al., 2008; Han and Johnson, 2012). The present study tends to expand on what is previously explored and identified the effect of e-learning and EI on the psychological pressure of students, such as study stress, burnout, and performance.

The feelings and emotions of students are directly linked with their study and career achievements, though career achievements demand a standard performance. Scholars realized that motivations of students direct their behavior toward educational achievements and academic success (Van Tilburg and Igou, 2013; Wigfield and Gladstone, 2019), but psychological pressure in terms of stress, tension, fear, and various psychosomatic problems are connected with a variety of destructive outcomes (Naquin and Gilbert, 1996). The psychological pressure is experienced when physical and emotional requirements of academic activities do not meet the competencies, needs, and resources of the students (Curran and Standage, 2017); hence, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, students educational activities have been dramatically affected in various aspects, such as online classes, postponing of physical events, and students mobility (Altbach and de Wit, 2020; Tesar, 2020), which caused strict travel restrictions and thousands of students psychological pressure influence their behavior negatively in term of canceling their plans for studying overseas. For instance, according to the Institute of International Education, nearly 90% of the US institutions have estimated a decrease in foreign student enrolment (Martel, 2020); British Council in 2020 indicated that 39% of Chinese scholars, which is a major source of overseas students in the United Kingdom, are hesitant about withdrawing their study plans (Durnin, 2020). Similarly, 59.95% of international students in China come from Asia, including more than 28,023 students from Pakistan (Ministry of Education in China, 2019). As a result, significant adverse psychological pressure has been reported among the study stress, burnout, and performance of students (Wang et al., 2020). No such research has been conducted in Pakistan yet. Therefore, this study aims to expand the existing literature by assessing the effect of e-learning (online classes) and EI on the psychological pressure (study stress, burnout, and performance) of students among overseas Pakistani students stranded in Pakistan.

The influence of online classes on work stress, burnout, and performance can be moderated by EI, but little existing research has observed direct and indirect impacts among these variables. The present study aimed to investigate the influence of e-learning (online classes) on work stress, burnout, and performance, and the potential moderation of EI of these effects. This research is based on emotion regulation theory (Gross, 1998), indicating that individuals assess the understanding, valence, and value relevance to control their feelings and emotions according to the existing situation. A person who possesses high emotional competencies is better tends to execute his or her skill (Kirk et al., 2008). A very valuable mechanism by which negative outcomes of sentiments can be coped is EI. Goleman (2001) recommended that individuals who possess strong social awareness are better at minimizing the destructive consequences of sentiments, and their overall performance also increased substantially. Garg et al. (2016) found that EI was directly related to adjustment to existing situations, and adjustment was directly connected to overall performance.

During uncertain situations, the EI supports individuals to identify their expectations and how to act appropriately. Students have to face such unanticipated situations quite often. They need to show positive feelings and emotions, such as patient, attention, hope, and prestige and encounter the requirement of their academic syllabus. These challenging situations enhance psychological pressure and might affect work performance, study stress, and burnout. However, EI can help to increase the work performance of students and simultaneously eliminate the effect of burnout and study stress.

Emotional intelligence is considered a pillar for educational, psychological, and management studies. The theory is rooted to understand oneself emotions and emotional reactions and identifying the experiences of different feelings and sentiments (Bliss, 2006). It also refers to tackling emotional disappointments, adapting behaviors, and the ability to avoid emotional stress, burnout, and learning to evade the negativity of feelings and emotions (Chandra and Mathur, 2016, p. 231). Richards and Pryce (2006) propose that individuals with a high level of EI are more proficient in reducing stress levels, burning out, and improving their performance. Higher level of EI more appropriately coping with the stress and burnout sources, which enhance work performance (Alonazi, 2020). According to Sadovyy et al. (2021), individuals with a high level of EI precisely use their emotional skills and abilities to diminish stress and burnout related to the pandemic. Accordingly, the work performance of emotionally intelligent individuals is superior to those with a low level of EI during the current pandemic (Alonazi, 2020; Rezvani et al., 2020). Educational activities are now switched into the new environment to maintain the development of students (Paloş et al., 2010). During the last decade, emotion has been considered a significant aspect of the learning process; past studies show that EI can stimulate the academic performance of students (Cleveland-Innes and Campbell, 2012). There is evidence that the emotional competencies of a student are associated with online learning. Students with emotional skills are expected to react more effectively than students with a low EI level. The emotional competencies reduce student psychological pressure, and consequently, the learning performance of students can be improved (McKnight, 2013). Similarly, Enns et al. (2018) found that a high EI is linked with better stress management. According to Enns et al. (2018), an emotionally intelligent individual can cope with stressful situations and encounter educational challenges effectively.

Previous studies on emotion regulation indicated that EI is directly associated with psychological management across multiple professions, including student learning (Pugh, 2008; Ergur, 2009) and academic performance (Williford, 2010). EI capabilities facilitate students to adapt the uncertain situation accurately and encouraging them to identify innovative solutions, which might influence their intellectual skills that lead to standard academic performance. According to Berenson et al. (2008), EI strongly moderates academic performance in distance and online classes. Another study by Grandey (2000) found that high levels of EI diminish work stress, burnout, and increase performance levels. Similarly, Wu et al. (2007) study results concluded that EI shows an effective role in reducing psychological pressure, interpersonal and environmental conflicts, and increasing positive work behavior and outcomes.

An increase in EI is connected to a decrease in stress. In the same vein, Márquez et al. (2006) collected a sample of students in Spain and found that higher EI is significantly associated with academic achievement. As stated above, psychologists claim that individuals who have EI skills are more successful than those who do not have EI. Despite its contributions toward success in other areas, there have a few studies conducted of EI as a predictor for success in online classes. The online classes continue due to COVID-19, which plays a greater role in the academic curriculum of students. Likewise, higher EI is connected with better psychological functioning (Zeidner and Matthews, 2018; Zysberg and Raz, 2019). Therefore, the authors investigate the possible moderating role of EI between online classes, study stress, burnout, and performance, as shown in Figure 1.

Before analyzing the study hypotheses, we tested confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) to compute the discriminant validities of reports of e-learning, EI, study stress, burnout, and academic performance of students. To analyze the model fit of CFA, we must consider the standard criteria of the various model fit indices. It has been recommended that root means square error of approximation (RMSEA) values <0.05 are better, however, values between 0.05 and 0.08 are indicated a satisfactory level of model fit (Mulaik et al., 1989). The CFI value that is close to 0.90, the Normed fit index (NFI) value and the incremental fit index (IFI) value that exceeds 0.90 recommended a satisfactory model fit (Bentler, 1990; Byrne, 1994). The root means square residual (RMR) value range 0–1 is acceptable, but a value < 0.05 is considered well fit (Byrne, 1994). We run λ² differences among a single-factor and five-factor model to check which model appropriately fit to the data sample. The estimated five-factor model provided [χ² (113) = 268.4, p < 0.001, NFI = 0.914, CFI = 0.943, IFI = 0.952, RMR = 0.01, and RMSEA = 0.04] better results as compared with four-factor model shaped by linking study stress and burnout (χ² (116) = 585.6, p < 0.05, NFI = 0.825, CFI = 0.847, IFI = 0.838, RMR = 0.04, and RMSEA = 0.08) and more better compared to a single-factor model (CFI = 0.517, NFI = 0.567, IFI = 0.518, and RMSEA = 0.12).

To measure the discriminant validity refers to the amount to which the measures do not reflect some other variables, which are specified by low correlations concerning the measure of interest and the measure of other constructs. The correlation along with the mean and SD of the targeted variables is given in Table 2. The correlation results show a significant positive relationship between EI and academic performance (0.48, p < 0.01) and a significant negative relationship between EI and study stress (0.39, p < 0.05). Similarly, the correlation between EI and burnout (−0.35, p < 0.01). The relation between e-learning and academic performance (−0.36, p < 0.01), e-learning and study stress (−0.43, p < 0.01), and e-learning and burnout (−0.41, p < 0.001) shows a significant negative correlation, respectively.

Currently, students observed that their academic performance had been interrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This has forced thousands of students to stay away from their universities. The academic performance and psychological intentions of students are disturbed due to the lack of their college campuses, friends, professors, visiting the library, experimental activities in laboratories, group discussions, projects, etc.

Our finding confirms that Pakistani students show high psychological pressure toward online classes. They experience high levels of study stress and burnout and a low level of academic performance. In addition, students with high EI demonstrated a low level of study stress and burnout and better academic performance. The present study confirmed the influence of e-learning on academic performance, study stress, and burnout moderated by EI. Specifically, we discovered that students were suffering high psychological pressure from online classes facing low levels of study stress and burnout and high academic performance when they possess a high level of EI. Therefore, the present study supported all our hypotheses.

Furthermore, the results have identified two critical factors helping to understand the psychological intentions of Pakistani students during this COVID-19 pandemic: (a) the findings of this research add to the literature by signifying that e-learning and EI are critically important for the academic outcomes of a student. Students may become frustrated, show intent to give up or withdraw from taking online classes, and engage in negative behaviors toward their studies due to the psychological pressure of online classes; (b) the findings of this research advocate that EI can moderate e-learning, consequently, cause less study stress, burnout, and the consequence of enhancing academic performance. EI is a skill that can be developed through training and gradually increasing over the years. Yilmaz (2009) conducted a study. He argues that providing EI training programs to University students can help handle their psychological pressure and enhance the level of EI of students.

The results of the present study claim that those students who are better to handle and manage positive and negative sentiments are more capable of reacting accurately according to the existing requirements and effectively regulating emotions to increase their well-being due to experience psychological stress and burnout. The outcomes obtained in this study can confirm that it is important to include an emotional training program in the educational institutions and online classes to improve the learning process. Furthermore, the study of EI allows the student to take more potential possibilities to adjust to different uncertain situations and crises to obtain academic success (Herrera et al., 2020). Our results are parallel to the Lam and Kirby (2002) study; they argued that EI could assist students to resolve academic and daily problems more efficiently and managing psychological pressure effectively (Herrera et al., 2020; Moreno-Fernandez et al., 2020). Less EI individuals have been experiencing high psychological stress during the learning process (Adeyemo and Ogunyemi, 2005).

Cazan and Năstasă (2015) suggest that one of the students' major aspects is showing enthusiasm and building a strong connection with the academic curriculum. For successful academic achievements, students have to proficiently display skills to cope with stressful situations, keep a positive work attitude, and interact with professors. In addition, it should be understood that physical and emotional demands emphasize building interpersonal capabilities, but they also include productive relationships with friends, families, teachers, and other professionals in extremely hard and uncertain situations. Pedrosa et al. (2020) observed the connection between emotional challenges with the perspectives of students; they found that the psychological stress and burnout of students become more obvious. Consequently, regulation, controlling, and managing feelings and emotions are deemed compulsory for successful academic performance (Suleman et al., 2019; Halimi et al., 2020; MacCann et al., 2020).

To conclude, the present study examines the relationships among e-learning, EI, study stress, burnout, and academic performance of students, during the global pandemic. Our findings significantly support the previous literature that EI effectively copes with a negative effect and stress arising from the COVID-19 pandemic (Chandra, 2020). Similarly, the results of Estrada et al. (2021) also parallel with our findings that EI enhances academic performance and reduces psychological stress among students. Based on the empirical results, the authors suggest that EI development and training programs might be included in the academic curriculum for students, which may help to control the serious effects (study stress and burnout) link to high levels of psychological pressure experienced by students during online classes. EI training and development programs can enhance the ability of a student to control and mitigate stressful situations (Drigas and Papoutsi, 2020), and also support the students to improve their social adjustment and academic performance (Wang, 2019). As a result, this might increase the ability of students to face and manage uncertain situations effectively and, ultimately, will enhance their academic performance.

This study had some limitations. First, rely on self-report assessment in this research could raise concerns of response biases. Second, to advance the generalizability of the current conclusions, a future study can imitate this model on other professionals, such as University teachers, organization leaders, and employees of multinational companies. Moreover, this research investigated the moderating role of EI between e-learning and the psychological intentions of overseas students. Therefore, it would be fascinating to observe the impact of other variables (e.g., IQ and cultural intelligence). A noticeable limitation of the present study includes the sample size. We gathered and analyzed data from only 10 Chinese University students stranded in Pakistan, and the sample size was 387 students, which is not big data. Further study may consider a large sample of data, collecting from several different countries.

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

Ethical review and approval was not required for the study on human participants in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. Written informed consent for participation was not required for this study in accordance with the national legislation and the institutional requirements.

All the authors contributed to the conceptualization, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, writing of the original draft, and writing review and editing. All the other authors contributed to the formal analysis, investigation, methodology, and writing review and editing. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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