The study investigated emotional and social intelligence as predictors of occupational stress of civil servants in Rivers State. The study adopted correlational design. A total of 600 civil servants were drawn through proportionate stratified sampling technique. Three instruments, Emotional Intelligence Scale (EIS), Social Intelligence Scale (SIS) and Occupational Stress Inventory (OSI) which were validated and had reliability coefficients of 0.827 for EIS, 0.849 for SIS and 0.953 for OSI respectively. Three research questions and three hypotheses guided the study. Relevant data gathered were analyzed with multiple regression analysis as statistical tool. The result of the study showed that relationship management dimension of emotional intelligence is a significant predictor of the occupational stress of civil servants while emotional self awareness, emotional self management, and emotional social awareness dimensions are not. In addition, relationship management dimension of emotional intelligence is the strongest predictor. Furthermore, the components of social intelligence such as social skills and social awareness are significant predictors of the occupational stress of civil servants, while social information processing is not significant predictor. Social skills component of social intelligence is the strongest predictor. The finding also showed that the dimensions of emotional intelligence and the components of social intelligence when considered collectively, significantly predict the occupational stress of civil servants and the combined prediction could account for up to 74.9% of the variance in the occupational stress of civil servants. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that since it has been established that both emotional intelligence and its dimensions as well as social intelligence and its components could predict the occupational stress of civil servants, efforts should be made by employers of civil servants for training to enable them acquire the competencies inherent in emotional and social intelligences. This is sequel to the fact that these skills or competencies are acquirable and have been found to reduce stress among workers as reported in literature.
Keywords: Civil Servants, Emotional Intelligence, Social Intelligence, occupational Stress
