Unique Associational Links Among Emotional Intelligence, Coping, and Resilience in Adolescents
摘要
In the formative adolescent years resilience has been identified as an important factor in promoting positive outcomes such as coping and peer belonging and inhibiting undesirable outcomes such as psychological distress anxiety depression and disruptive behaviour. It is therefore important to understand the factors associated with resilience in adolescence. This cross-sectional study explored the associational role of emotional intelligence (EI) and coping in relation to self-reported resilience in a sample of 545 secondary school students between 14 and 16 years of age. Participants completed self-report measures of EI coping styles and resilience in a classroom setting. Analyses examined whether EI was linked to coping preferences (e.g. problem-focused coping seeking social support and emotion-focused coping) and whether these coping strategies were in turn associated with higher levels of perceived resilience. Findings suggest that adolescents with higher EI scores tended to report greater engagement in problem-focused coping and social support seeking and lower reliance on emotion-focused coping patterns that were linked with higher perceived resilience. Coping showed indirect associations linking EI and resilience; however these relationships are interpreted as correlational rather than causal given the cross-sectional design. Results are discussed in terms of the associational pathways linking EI coping and resilience and the potential value of examining these links in future longitudinal studies that can more directly test causal mechanisms and inform intervention development.