Emotional Intelligence as Predictor of Mental, Social, and Physical Health in University Students

Abstract

This study examined the association between emotional intelligence (EI), anxiety, depression, and mental, social, and physical health in university students. The sample was made up of 184 university students (38 men and 146 women). EI was evaluated by the Trait Meta-Mood Scale (Salovey, Mayer, Goldman, Turvey, & Palfai, 1995), which evaluates the three dimensions (Attention, Clarity, and Mood Repair). Anxiety was evaluated with the Trait Anxiety Questionnaire (Spielberger, Gorsuch, Lushene, Vagg, & Jacobs, 1983) and depression with the Beck Depression Inventory (Beck, Rush, Shaw, & Emery, 1979). Mental, social, and physical health were evaluated with the SF-12 Health Survey (Ware, Kosinski, & Keller, 1996). Results showed that high Emotional Attention was positively and significantly related to high anxiety, depression, and to low levels of Role Emotional, Social Functioning, and Mental Health. However, high levels of emotional Clarity and Mood Repair were related to low levels of anxiety and depression, high Role Physical, Social Functioning, Mental Health, Vitality, and General Health. This study confirmed the predictive value of Attention, Clarity and Mood Repair regarding the levels of anxiety, depression, and areas related to mental, social, and physical health in university students.

Emotional intelligence and personality in major depression: Trait versus state effects

“…Brown and Schutte (2006), when examining the relationship between EI and subjective fatigue among university students, demonstrated that higher EI was associated with less fatigue, probably because EI allows individuals to develop coping strategies, such as healthier mood, as well as more adaptive ways of interpreting the world and better social supports to ameliorate the effects of physical stresses. Extremera and Fernandez-Berrocal (2006) also reported that high levels of emotional clarity and mood repair were related to low levels of depression. Finally, Martinez-Pons (1997) showed that EI correlated positively with life satisfaction, but negatively with depression symptomatology, suggesting that individuals with high EI report greater life satisfaction and fewer depression-related symptoms than those with low EI.…”

Trait Meta-Mood and Subjective Happiness: A 7-week Prospective Study

“…Consistent with this view, higher scores on the TMMS have been found to be associated with less psychological maladjustment-including lower reported levels of symptoms, anxiety and depression (Extremera and Fernández-Berrocal 2006;Thompson et al 2007), lower rates of borderline personality disorders (Leible and Snell 2004), and to be predictive of coping behaviours (Gohm and Clore 2002;Salovey et al 2002). Furthermore, TMMS scores have traditionally been related to indicators of psychological adjustment such as satisfaction with life, positive affectivity or psychological well-being (Augusto-Landa et al, in press;Goldman et al 1996;Shulman and Hemenover 2006).…”

Inteligencia Emocional y Comunicación: la conciencia corporal como recurso.

“…Por el contrario, una elevada habilidad para tomar conciencia y controlar nuestras emociones, incide directamente en la reducción del malestar subjetivo y las emociones negativas. Así, las personas con una alta capacidad para clarificar y regular sus propias emociones presentarán menor sintomatología ansiosa y depresiva, más satisfacción vital y en definitiva mejor salud mental y física (Domenech Delgado, 1995;Fernández-Berrocal, Ramos, y Extremera, 2001;Extremera y Fernández-Berrocal, 2006). El desarrollo de competencias como la autoconciencia, la confianza en uno mismo, la empatía y la gestión de las emociones e impulsos perturbadores, mejoran la conducta de las personas (docentes, en nuestro caso) y su rendimiento en entornos educativos (Mearns y Cain, 2003).…”