Desireé Ruiz-Aranda

Short- and Midterm Effects of Emotional Intelligence Training on Adolescent Mental Health

PURPOSE To analyze the effects that an emotional intelligence (EI) educational program based on the EI ability model had on adolescent mental health immediately and 6 months after completion of the training. METHODS A pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design with a treatment and a control group was used; 479 Spanish adolescents (47.4% male, mean age of 13 years) were involved in the study. Adolescents were recruited through several schools in three Spanish cities. The 2-year training program involved 24 sessions lasting 1 hour each, conducted `weekly during 6 months of 2009 and 2010. Data on psychological adjustment, mental health, and negative affect were collected at baseline, at the end of the training program, and 6 months later. Data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance. RESULTS Students who participated in the EI educational program reported fewer clinical symptoms compared with students in the control group, and these differences persisted 6 months after the conclusion of the program. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that EI programs created to develop skills in perceiving, facilitating, understanding, and managing emotions can be effective at promoting mental health in adolescents.

Emotional intelligence, life satisfaction and subjective happiness in female student health professionals: the mediating effect of perceived stress

The objective of the present study was to extend previous findings by examining the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and well-being indicators (life satisfaction and happiness) in a 12-week follow-up study. In addition, we examined the influence of perceived stress on the relationship between EI and well-being. Female students from the School of Health Sciences (n = 264) completed an ability measure of emotional intelligence. After 12 weeks, participants completed the Perceived Stress Scale, Satisfaction with Life Scale and Subjective Happiness Scale. Participants with higher EI reported less perceived stress and higher levels of life satisfaction and happiness. The results of this study suggest that perceived stress mediates the relationship between EI and well-being indicators, specifically life satisfaction and happiness. These findings suggest an underlying process by which high emotional intelligence may increase well-being in female students in nursing and allied health sciences by reducing the experience of stress. The implications of these findings for future research and for working with health professions to improve well-being outcomes are discussed.

Emotional Intelligence and Acute Pain: The Mediating Effect of Negative Affect

UNLABELLED Emotional abilities are predictive variables of lower perceived pain. However, no studies have been published investigating the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI), which refers to the ability to accurately perceive, appraise, understand, communicate and regulate emotions, and pain. The objective of the present study was to analyze the influence of EI, measured using the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT), on the level of sensory and affective pain generated by an experimental cold pressor task (CPT). In addition, we examined the influence of negative affect, as measured through the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), on the relationship between EI and pain. Healthy college students (N = 67) completed measures of EI before the CPT, during which they submerged their nondominant hand into ice water, and they completed measures of negative emotional state before and after the CPT. Participants with higher EI rated pain as less intense and perceived it as less unpleasant. Greater emotional intelligence predicted less pain in this experimental paradigm, and the effects seemed to be mediated by the lower NA reactivity associated with greater EI. PERSPECTIVE Emotional intelligence is an important element in the processing of emotional information during an experience of acute pain since it reduces the level of negative affect generated by the experimental task.

Emotional Regulation and Acute Pain Perception in Women

UNLABELLED Emotional regulation is an important variable in the experience of pain. Currently, there are no experimental investigations of the relation between emotional regulation and pain. The goal of the present study work was to analyze differences in pain perception and mood generated by the cold-pressor (CPT) experimental paradigm in women with high and low emotional regulation. Two groups of women were formed as a function of their level of emotional regulation: women with high emotional repair (N = 24) and women with low emotional repair (N = 28), all of whom performed the CPT. The results show that the women with a high score in emotional repair reported having experienced less sensory pain and affective pain during the immersion, as well as a more positive affective state before beginning the task. During the experimental task, they also reported a better mood, thus displaying lower impact of the experience of pain. PERSPECTIVE Emotional regulation is proposed as a key element to manage the emotional reaction that accompanies the experience of acute pain experimentally induced by the CPT experimental paradigm in a sample of healthy women.