Background: The link between subjective well-being (SWB), gender and emotional intelligence (EI) has been studied; however, it is not clear what kind of relationship has been established between these variables. The objective of this study was to examine the direct and indirect effects of EI in the relationship between gendertyped attributes and SWB. Method: The participants were 365 Spanish schoolchildren with a mean age of 13.9. The instruments used were the Spanish version of GRI-JUG (GRI-JUG-SP15) for gender-typed attributes, TMMS-24 for EI, PANASN for positive and negative affects, and SWLS for satisfaction with life. A mediational analysis was carried out using EI (attention, repair and clarity) as mediator in order to find out the effects on well-being. Results: The findings yielded that EI significantly mediated the relationship between gender-typed attributes and SWB. Particularly, clarity and repair are positively associated with SWB, whereas attention is negatively associated with SWB. Also, clarity and repair can be considered more important than attention in promoting SWB, according to the models of mediation and their effect size. Moreover, clarity and repair were mediators in feminine and masculine attributes while attention only was mediator for positive feminine attributes. Conclusion: For adolescents who claim to have positive feminine attributes, an aspect that would improve SWB is through the increase of clarity and repair and the decrease in attention. Further research is needed to examine the extent to which the pattern of results generalises in other contexts, and to explore the relevance of negative emotions in the development of affective-related issues.
K E Y W O R D Sadolescents, emotional intelligence, gender-typed attributes, well-being