Untangling the Emotional Intelligence-Suicidal Ideation Connection: The Role of Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies in Adolescents

Though contemporary scientific literature addressing the links between emotional intelligence (EI) and suicidal ideation in adolescents is scarce, one of the potential proposed pathways through which EI may reduce the risk of suicidal ideation involves its relationship with the use of adaptive coping strategies. The aim of this research is to provide support for an empirical pathway that proposes that the effects of EI on suicide risk may follow an indirect pathway, involving maladaptive and adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies, using both cross-sectional and prospective design in two independent studies with Spanish adolescents. The sample of Study 1 consisted of 1824 students (52.4% female; mean age 14.55 years). In Study 2, 796 adolescents (54.4% female; mean age 13.76 years) filled out the measures twice, four months later. The results confirmed a positive association between EI and adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies and a negative link with suicidal ideation. As expected, the results showed that both cross-sectionally (Study 1) and prospectively (Study 2) EI predicted lower suicidal ideation. Bootstrap mediation analysis indicated that only adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies partially mediated the link between EI and suicidal ideation both cross-sectionally and prospectively. Together, those adolescents who showed higher EI were more likely to report more adaptive cognitive emotion regulation, which in turn predicted lower levels of suicidal ideation. Our findings suggest possible avenues for prevention and intervention efforts aimed at boosting emotional abilities and developing adaptive coping strategies among adolescents who are at elevated suicide risk.

A Meta-Analysis of the Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence and Academic Performance in Secondary Education: A Multi-Stream Comparison

This study was a quantitative meta-analysis of empirical research on the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and academic performance (AP) that included the three main theoretical models of EI. We conducted a computerized literature search in the main electronic databases. Forty-four of an initial 3,210 articles met the inclusion criteria. With 49 effect sizes and a cumulative sample size of 19,861 participants, we found significant heterogeneity indices indicating a variety of results. In general, the results of this study indicated a significant effect of EI on AP (Z ¯ = 0.26). Average association between EI and AP was higher in studies measured EI as ability (Z ¯ = 0.31), than studies measured EI as self-report (Z ¯ = 0.24), and self-report mixed EI (Z ¯ = 0.26). In the educational field, this meta-analysis provides information on the specific role of EI as a function of used measures. Some practical implications are discussed.

Predictive Factors of Cyberbullying Perpetration amongst Spanish Adolescents

(1) Cyberbullying has gained increased attention from society and researchers due both to its negative psychosocial consequences and the problems that have risen relating to the misuse of technology. Despite the growing number of scientific studies, most research has focused on victims of cyberbullying rather than on the cyberbullies. This study examines the predictive value of personal resources (emotional intelligence, gratitude, and core self-evaluations) and risk factors (cybervictimization, problematic Internet use), and parental control in online activities on adolescents' involvement in cyberbullying perpetration. (2) A total of 2039 Spanish adolescents between 12 and 18 years of age took part in this research (53.9% females). (3) Twenty-two percent of the sample was engaged in cyberbullying behaviors (more male adolescents). Insults and online social exclusion were the most frequent types of cyberbullying perpetration. Age, cybervictimization, problematic Internet use, and deficits in the use and regulation of emotions were the best predictors of cyberbullying perpetration. (4) Cyberbullying is a social reality in which personal and family variables converge on a particularly vulnerable age group. Our findings suggest that both well-known predictors of cyberbullying (cybervictimization and problematic Internet use) along with others less studied dimensions (i.e., emotional abilities) need to be taken into account in future school-based interventions aimed to prevent cyberbullying perpetration.

Cyberbullying victimization and somatic complaints: A prospective examination of cognitive emotion regulation strategies as mediators

Background/Objective: The main purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among cybervictimization, maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies and somatic complaints in a 4-month follow-up study. Method: A total of 1,024 high school students (456 male and 568 female, M (SD) = 13.69 years (1.3 years), range 12–18 years, voluntarily participated in this study. Measures of cybervictimization and cognitive strategies were obtained at Time 1. Four months later (Time 2), measures of somatic complaints were obtained. Results: Multiple mediation analyses were conducted to determine the mediating roles of maladaptive strategies in the link between cybervictimization and somatic complaints. As expected, path-analytic results showed that cybervictimization predicted somatic symptoms. Furthermore, some maladaptive regulation strategies, namely self-blame and rumination, partially mediated the link between cybervictimization and somatic symptoms evaluated 4-months later. Conclusions: The findings are discussed in terms of the role that maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies might play with regards to physical health in cyberbullying episodes. In general, these findings have important implications for developing an understanding about the affective determinants of somatic health problem initiation and maintenance after a victimization and for developing intervention programs specifically for cybervictimized adolescents.

Optimism and gratitude on suicide risk in Spanish adults: Evidence for doubling up or doubling down?

OBJECTIVE

The present study examines the role of optimism and gratitude as predictors of suicide risk, namely depressive symptoms and suicide ideation. Beyond their expected predictive role, optimism and gratitude were also hypothesized to interact together to predict both suicide risk outcomes.

METHODS

A sample of 1,013 Spanish adults (521 females) participated in this study. The average age was 39.63 years old (standard deviation = 16.19; range 16-82).

RESULTS

Results indicated that the optimism × gratitude interaction term significantly augmented the prediction of both depressive symptoms and suicide ideation. Specifically, pessimists presented with a higher risk of suicide, but the effect was weaker among those individuals with higher levels of gratitude. Alternatively, optimists with high gratitude showed the highest amount of protection from suicide risk.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings are the first to show how optimism and gratitude might interact as a positive psychological variable to confer greater personal resources in protecting individuals against suicide risk.

Predicting Job Satisfaction in Military Organizations: Unpacking the Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence, Teamwork Communication, and Job Attitudes in Spanish Military Cadets

Although prior research has extensively examined the association of emotional intelligence (EI) with various job attitudes (e.g., job satisfaction), empirical and systematic investigation of this link within military institutions has captured considerably less attention. The present research analyzed the relationship between EI, teamwork communication, and job satisfaction among Spanish military cadets. We tested the potential unique contribution of EI to job satisfaction over and above demographics (i.e., gender and age), proactive personality, and resilience. Moreover, we also examined whether EI was indirectly linked to job satisfaction via its relationship with teamwork communication. A sample of 363 cadet officers of the Spanish General Military Academy completed questionnaires assessing EI, teamwork communication, proactive personality, resilience, and job satisfaction. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that EI exhibited incremental variance (ΔR 2 = 5.2%) in predicting job satisfaction (B = 0.539, 95% CI [0.306,0.771]) even after accounting for demographics, proactive personality, and resilience. Additionally, mediation analysis showed that the association of EI with job satisfaction was partially driven by enhanced teamwork communication. This research provides empirical evidence suggesting a pathway (i.e., effective teamwork communication) through which EI could help military cadets to experience higher job satisfaction. Implications for future academic programs including EI and teamwork communication to promote positive job attitudes among military personnel are discussed.

The Interactive Effects of Personal Resources on Teachers' Work Engagement and Withdrawal Intentions: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

This research contributes to the current knowledge on teacher well-being by examining an integrated model with a personal resource (i.e., emotional intelligence) explaining teacher withdrawal intention through a mediator (i.e., work engagement) and considering the moderator effect of a second personal resource (i.e., teacher self-efficacy) in this relationship. Adopting a cross-sectional design, a total of 702 teachers (63.2% female) working at different educational levels took part in this study. The results showed that emotional intelligence and teacher self-efficacy were positively related to work engagement and negatively related to withdrawal intentions. Most importantly, the results demonstrated support for the hypothesized model-that is, teacher self-efficacy moderated the relationship between emotional intelligence and work engagement. Taken together, our findings highlight both emotional intelligence and teacher self-efficacy as positive individual resources for increased work engagement and reduced withdrawal intentions. This study has implications for the development of intervention programs aiming at increasing occupational well-being in educational settings.

Connecting Emotion Regulation to Career Outcomes: Do Proactivity and Job Search Self-Efficacy Mediate This Link?

Introduction

Over the last decade, emotion regulation has drawn much attention in the organisational literature, specifically in career outcomes. Although the relationship between emotion regulation and career outcomes has been well established, potential mechanisms that might account for this relationship are still unclear.

Method

This study attempts to narrow this gap by examining the mediating effect of proactivity and job search self-efficacy on the relationship between emotion regulation and career outcomes in a sample consisting of 399 graduates (277 women, 122 men) with ages ranging from 22 to 60 years (M=30.5, SD=8.26).

Results

Structural equation modelling showed partial mediation effects of job search self-efficacy between emotion regulation and career outcomes. However, no mediating effect was found for proactivity.

Discussion

These results suggest that the promotion of emotion regulation and self-efficacy may be fundamental in the development of programmes for career outcomes. Finally, implications and limitations of the present findings are discussed.

Psychological distress among the unemployed: Do core self-evaluations and emotional intelligence help to minimize the psychological costs of unemployment?

BACKGROUND

Past research has shown that emotional intelligence (EI) and core self-evaluations (CSE) have a unique and independent role in the prediction of psychological maladjustment in the unemployed population. However, no one to date has examined the joint contribution of EI and CSE in predicting well-being and psychological distress among the unemployed. Our objective was to examine the main and interactive role of EI and CSE in the prediction of indicators for happiness, depression, stress, and anxiety beyond socio-demographics variables.

METHODS

A sample of 1796 unemployed participants completed a battery that included socio-demographic data and questionnaires of EI, CSE, happiness, depression, stress, and anxiety. We processed the data with SPSS and Hayes PROCESS macro.

RESULTS

Pearson correlation analyses showed significant associations between EI and CSE with different mental health outcomes. Moderation analyses revealed that, beyond the main effects, the interactive term EI × CSE increased the explained variance of the prediction of happiness, but not of depression, anxiety, or stress.

LIMITATIONS

The study comprised an incidental non-clinical sample of unemployed adults, so the results might not generalize to a clinical population. Also, the study was cross-sectional, and we relied only on self-report measures, which do not allow for establishing causal links and might include biases, such as social desirability and common method variance.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings highlight the need for developing more comprehensive models including the interaction of EI and dispositional traits as contributing factors in the prediction of positive outcomes among the unemployed. Also, future promotion programs should include dimensions related to EI and CSE for increasing well-being during unemployment.

The Role of Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies on Problematic Smartphone Use: Comparison between Problematic and Non-Problematic Adolescent Users

Prior work has suggested that individuals with deficits in emotion regulation skills are prone to compulsive behaviour and to following maladaptive coping strategies, such as smartphone overuse, to manage negative moods. Adolescence is a vulnerable developmental stage for deficits in emotion regulation, and these are linked to excessive smartphone use. The present study is the first to examine the links between the use of specific cognitive emotion regulation (CER) strategies and problematic smartphone use in a sample of adolescents. A total of 845 Spanish adolescents (455 females) completed the Spanish versions of the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and the Smartphone Addiction Scale, along with a socio-demographic survey. The adolescents were divided into two groups: Non-problematic smartphone users (n = 491, 58.1%) and problematic smartphone users (n = 354, 41.9%). Significant group differences were found, with the problematic users reporting significantly higher scores for all maladaptive CER strategies, including higher self-blame, rumination, blaming of others and catastrophising. The results from logistic regression analyses show that rumination, catastrophising and blaming of others were the most important variables for distinguishing between the two groups, along with gender and parental control outside the home. In summary, these findings suggest the importance of specific maladaptive CER strategies in problematic smartphone use and provide insight for relevant targets for intervention designs.

When and How Do Emotional Intelligence and Flourishing Protect against Suicide Risk in Adolescent Bullying Victims?

This study contributes to current knowledge on the protective role of emotional intelligence and flourishing in cases of suicide risk (namely depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation) in a sample of adolescent victims of traditional bullying. The proposed model tested the mediator role of flourishing in the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and suicide risk together with the moderating effect of EI in the relationship between low flourishing and increased suicide risk. Considering an initial sample of 1847 adolescents (52.5% female), a subsample of 494 pure bullying victims (61.3% female) took part in this research. The main results showed EI to be linked to decreased suicide risk through levels of flourishing. Moreover, EI buffered the relationship between low flourishing and the associated suicide risk. Victimized adolescents with both low levels of EI and of flourishing reported higher levels of suicide risk than their counterparts with high EI levels. This suggests the protective role of EI of both predicting higher flourishing and reducing the likelihood of suicide risk among victimized adolescents with low levels of flourishing. Finally, the practical implications of these novel findings regarding the role of EI and flourishing in the prevention of suicide risk among victimized adolescents are discussed.

Being Bullied at School: Gratitude as Potential Protective Factor for Suicide Risk in Adolescents

Bullying victimization has been recognized as a risk factor for social, physical, and psychological problems in adolescence. One promising resource that seems to protect adolescents from adversity and traumatic events is gratitude. However, no analysis of the specific role of gratitude in bullying context has been performed as yet. Thus, the aim of this research was to explore the associations between bullying victimization, gratitude and suicide risk (i.e., depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts and behaviors) and gender-based differences. We also investigated whether levels of gratitude moderated the relationship between victimization and suicide risk for girls and boys. A convenience sample of 1,617 adolescents (50.5% girls; M age = 14.02) participated in this research. Adolescents completed a paper-and-pencil questionnaire about their bullying victimization, gratitude, depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Gratitude was found to be negatively related to victimization and suicide risk. While no gender differences were found in gratitude, it was observed that girls reported higher levels of suicide risk. However, the victimization × gratitude interaction contributed to variance in suicide risk, but only for girls: Those girls who were victims of bullying with high gratitude scores reported lower suicide risk than their counterparts who showed less gratitude. Thus, the findings from this present cross-sectional study suggest that gratitude is related to suicide risk in the context of bullying victimization, especially among adolescent girls. Finally, the theoretical and practical implications of our novel contributions to the understanding of gratitude as a protective factor against consequences of bullying victimization are discussed.

What bridges the gap between emotional intelligence and suicide risk in victims of bullying? A moderated mediation study

BACKGROUND

Recent research has demonstrated that victims of bullying report serious problems, such as depression, which heighten the risk of suicide. Emotional intelligence (EI) has been increasingly recognized as a protective factor, but little is known about the mechanisms underlying the relation between EI and suicide risk in victims. This study aimed to test a theoretical model of how EI, depressive symptoms and gender interact to influence suicidal ideation and attempts in a sample of Spanish victims of bullying.

METHODS

The sample comprised 465 victims (273 girls) who completed self-report measures of perceived EI, depression and suicide risk.

RESULTS

Mediation and moderation analyses were performed using conditional process analysis. Findings showed that EI is a predictor of decreased suicide in victims. This relationship was partially mediated by depressive symptoms. Furthermore, this effect was moderated by gender, such that the mediation effect was stronger in girls compared to boys (moderated mediation).

LIMITATIONS

The cross-sectional design and the use of self-report instruments. Future research should address the longitudinal relations of these findings.

CONCLUSIONS

The promotion of emotional skills could be core to the development of suicide prevention programs in those high-risk adolescents who have suffered from bullying. Furthermore, gender should be taken into consideration, especially with regard to females reporting depressive symptoms related to having been bullied.

How Does Emotional Intelligence Make One Feel Better at Work? The Mediational Role of Work Engagement

Although previous research has highlighted the association between emotional intelligence (EI) and job satisfaction, the underlying mechanisms remain relatively unexplored. To address this gap, this study examined employee engagement as a potential mediator of the association. A multi-occupational sample of 405 Spanish professionals completed the Wong Law Emotional Intelligence Scale, the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale and an Overall Job Satisfaction Scale as well as providing socio-demographic data. As expected, employees' EI was positively related to engagement dimensions (vigour, dedication and absorption) as well as overall job satisfaction. Bootstrap estimates from multiple mediation analysis confirmed that employees' perceived EI was indirectly associated with job satisfaction via vigour and dedication scores, even when controlling for the effects of socio-demographic variables. Similarly, the same pattern was found when multiple mediation was conducted for each EI dimension. Our study contributes to understanding of the processes involved in maintaining and enhancing positive attitudes at work, providing the first, encouraging evidence that work engagement play a role in the EI-job satisfaction link. Our results extend the EI literature by elucidating the pathways through which EI is linked to positive employee attitudes and suggests that intervention programs designed to bolster EI might prove effective at increasing job satisfaction.

Emotion-regulation ability, role stress and teachers' mental health

Background

Work-related stressors, including role ambiguity and role conflict, are related to psychological maladjustment and mental ill-health. However, to date, the role of personal resources such as emotion-regulation ability (ERA) in the prediction of mental health indicators has not been addressed.

Aims

To examine whether ERA would contribute to explaining teachers' depression, anxiety and stress symptoms beyond role ambiguity and role conflict.

Methods

We carried out a cross-sectional questionnaire survey. We used a correlation matrix and hierarchical regression models to analyse the data.

Results

Three hundred and thirty-six Spanish teachers (185 female) from several grade levels completed the surveys (40% response rate). Role ambiguity and role conflict were positively related to depression, anxiety and stress symptoms. ERA was negatively related to teachers' scores on depressive, anxious and stress symptoms, with predictive power above the main effects of role ambiguity and role conflict. An interaction between role ambiguity and ERA was also significant in predicting depression.

Conclusions

Our study provides preliminary evidence suggesting the development of integrative models considering work-related stressors along with personal resources such as ERA aiming to prevent teachers' mental ill-health. Future studies should examine the influence of ERA on psychological symptoms using longitudinal designs.

Cyberbullying Victimization, Self-Esteem and Suicidal Ideation in Adolescence: Does Emotional Intelligence Play a Buffering Role?

Cyberbullying has been linked to social, physical and psychological problems for adolescent victims but there has been no analysis of the specific role of emotional intelligence in protecting against the negative symptoms associated with cyberbullying victimization. This study examined the interaction between cyberbullying victimization and emotional intelligence (EI) as predictors of psychological maladjustment (operationalized as high suicidal ideation and low self-esteem) in 1,660 Spanish adolescents. We also investigated whether levels of EI moderated the relationship between cyberbullying victimization and mental health problems. The cyberbullying victimization x EI interaction contributed to variance in suicidal ideation and self-esteem in our sample of adolescent victims. Adolescent victims of cyberbullying with high EI scores reported lower suicidal ideation and higher self-esteem than their less emotionally intelligent counterparts. Thus, our data provide empirical support for theoretical and conceptual work connecting victimization, EI abilities and mental health associated with cyberbullying. This suggests that alone, but also in combination, EI may be particularly relevant in leading to increased levels of mental health issues in cyberbullying victims. Finally, the theoretical implications of our findings on the relationship between these variables and the mental health issues of adolescent victims of cyberbullying are discussed.