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Past studies have reported emotional intelligence (EI) as a relevant factor in development and maintenance of eating disorders (ED), as well as in increasing self-esteem and reducing anxiety. Similarly, research has showed that anxiety and self-esteem are positively and negatively associated to ED criteria, respectively. However, no prior studies have yet tested the multiple intervening roles of both self-esteem and anxiety as potential mediators of the association between EI and ED symptomatology. The present study aims to bridge these gaps by testing a sequential path model. Specifically, we examine the potential sequential mediation effects of self-esteem-anxiety on the link between EI and ED. A sample composed of 516 Spanish undergraduate students and community adults completed measures of EI, self-esteem, anxiety, and ED symptomatology. The results show that high levels of EI were positively associated with self-esteem and negatively associated with anxiety and ED symptoms. Anxiety was positively associated to ED symptoms, while self-esteem levels were negatively linked to ED symptoms. Moreover, path analyses showed that self-esteem and anxiety fully mediated the relationship between EI and ED symptoms in sequence. These findings suggest that EI plays a key role in reducing symptomatology of ED through increased self-esteem and reduced anxiety symptoms, providing novel evidence regarding psychological mechanisms through which EI contributes to a reduction of ED symptomatology. Implications for assessing and improving these psychological resources in ED preventive programs are discussed.

La inteligencia emocional (IE) y las estrategias de regulación constituyen recursos personales relevantes para la prevención de los trastornos de conducta alimentaria (TCA). En concreto, las estrategias de regulación cognitivo emocional (ERCE) desadaptativas han mostrado vínculos positivos con criterios de TCA. Sin embargo, no existen estudios que analicen el potencial rol mediador de las ERCE en la relación entre IE y TCA. Nuestro objetivo fue analizar el papel mediador de las ERCE entre IE y TCA. La muestra estuvo compuesta por 516 adultos españoles entre población comunitaria y universitaria. Cumplimentaron una batería administrada de forma online que incluía medidas de IE, ERCE y sintomatología de TCA. Nuestros resultados mostraron que altos niveles de IE se asociaron positivamente con las ERCE adaptativas y negativamente con las ERCE desadaptativas y con síntomas de TCA. Adicionalmente, los análisis de mediación mostraron que las ERCE desadaptativas mediaron la relación entre la IE y los síntomas de TCA. Estos hallazgos sugieren que las personas con alta IE podrían informar menos sintomatología de los TCA, en parte, debido al menor uso de las ERCE desadaptativas. Finalmente, se discuten las implicaciones para evaluar y mejorar estos recursos psicológicos en los programas de prevención y tratamiento de los TCA.

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Objective: This research aimed to explore the moderating role of emotional intelligence (EI) in the relationship between self-esteem and eating disorders (ED) symptomatology.Method: A battery of online questionnaires was administered to a sample of 516 adults including university students and a community population. The sample, age range of 18-77 years (X = 38.90; SD = 14.76), was made up of 63% women and 32% men.Results: EI moderated the association between self-esteem and ED symptomatology for the total sample. However, a gender-specific analysis showed that the moderation effect was only significant for women. Specifically, when women reported a low level of self-esteem, those with high scores in EI reported lower scores in ED symptoms than those with low EI.Discussion: Our findings are discussed in terms of the need for future research to understand the different gender associations and to consider these differences in further intervention programs for reducing the risk of ED, in which training in emotional skills may be more beneficial for women than men.