A study of adolescents in Australia found that higher emotional intelligence is associated with higher subjective and eudaimonic wellbeing, and lower psychological distress. The research was published in Psychological Reports.
Emotional intelligence refers to the ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions effectively in oneself and in others. It involves recognizing emotional cues such as facial expressions, tone of voice, and bodily signals.
A core component of emotional intelligence is emotional awareness, which allows individuals to identify and label their own feelings accurately. Another key component is emotion regulation, or the ability to manage emotions in adaptive ways rather than being overwhelmed by them.
Emotional intelligence also includes empathy, or understanding and responding appropriately to the emotions of other people. It supports effective communication, conflict resolution, and relationship quality. Individuals with higher emotional intelligence tend to cope better with stress and emotional challenges. Emotional intelligence is associated with better mental health and psychological wellbeing. In work and leadership contexts, it is linked to teamwork, performance, and job satisfaction.
Study author Justine Lomas and her colleagues wanted to investigate the relationships between the trait of emotional intelligence and different measures of adolescent psychological adjustment. They also wanted to look into potential gender differences in these factors.
Their hypothesis was that emotional intelligence would be associated with better wellbeing and lower levels of psychological distress. They also expected that emotional awareness and regulation (which are components of emotional intelligence) would be associated with internalizing and externalizing behaviors.
Subjective wellbeing refers to how people evaluate and experience their lives, typically in terms of life satisfaction, positive emotions, and low levels of negative emotions. Eudaimonic wellbeing refers to a deeper sense of wellbeing based on meaning, purpose, personal growth, and the realization of one’s potential rather than pleasure alone.
Internalizing behaviors are problems that are directed inward, such as anxiety, depression, social withdrawal, and somatic complaints. Externalizing behaviors refer to problems that are directed outward, such as aggression, rule-breaking, impulsivity, and antisocial behavior.
Study participants were 422 students completing year 8 at three independent Australian schools. 83 of the students were girls. Their average age was approximately 13 years.
Study participants completed assessments of emotional intelligence (using the Adolescent Swinburne University Emotional Intelligence Test), distress (the General Health Questionnaire-12), subjective and eudaimonic wellbeing (the EPOCH and the Personal Wellbeing Index – School Children Version), and externalizing and internalizing symptoms (the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire).
Results showed that components of emotional intelligence were associated with better subjective and eudaimonic wellbeing, lower psychological distress, and fewer internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Higher subjective and eudaimonic wellbeing were associated with fewer internalizing and externalizing symptoms and lower psychological distress.
The study also found small gender differences in some components of emotional intelligence. Additionally, girls tended to report higher psychological distress compared to boys.
“The results of the current study indicate that EI [emotional intelligence] plays a role in the prediction of wellbeing and problem behaviors, offering additional predictive power beyond measures of psychological distress, eudaimonic and subjective wellbeing. The results also offer support for the notion that EI is a predictor of adolescent wellbeing, no matter how wellbeing is conceptualized,” study authors concluded.
The study contributes to the scientific understanding of the links between emotional intelligence and wellbeing. However, the design of the study does not allow any causal inferences to be derived from the results.
The paper, “Pursuit of Happiness: The Relationship Between Adolescent Wellbeing, Psychological Distress, Problem Behaviours, and Emotional Intelligence,” was authored by Justine Lomas, Con Stough, and Luke Downey.