Luque-Reca Octavio, Augusto-Landa José María, Pulido-Martos Manuel
Faculty of Humanities and Education Sciences, Department of Psychology, University of Jaén, Jaén,Spain.
PeerJ. 2016 Jul 21;4:e2246. doi: 10.7717/peerj.2246. eCollection 2016.
Background. This work examines the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and depressive symptomatology in institutionalized older adults, delving into the mechanisms underlying this relationship. Considering that previous evidence of the variation of the EI-depression relationship depending on whether the emotional ability or the perception of that ability is evaluated, a model of multiple mediation was tested in which the dimensions of emotional self-efficacy (ESE) act as mediators in the relationship between ability EI and depressive symptomatology. Methods. The sample consisted of 115 institutionalized older adults (47.82% women; 80.3 ± 7.9 years of age) from the province of Jaén (Spain) who completed a test of ESE, a measure of ability EI, and a self-administered questionnaire of depressive symptoms. Results. The results showed a positive association between older adults' emotional performance and depressive symptomatology, finding stronger associations with ESE than with EI abilities. In addition, multiple mediation analyses showed that two of the four dimensions of ESE fully mediated the relationship between ability EI and depressive symptoms. Discussion. These findings suggest that older adults' high levels of emotional competence generate a feeling of ESE which can protect them against depressive symptoms. This work supports the predictive validity of emotional abilities and ESE for the mental health of a group that is particularly vulnerable to depression, institutionalized older adults. The limitations of the work are discussed, and future lines of research were considered.
背景。本研究探讨了机构养老老年人的情商（EI）与抑郁症状之间的关系，并深入研究了这种关系背后的机制。鉴于先前有证据表明，根据评估的是情绪能力还是对该能力的感知，EI与抑郁之间的关系存在差异，因此测试了一个多重中介模型，其中情绪自我效能感（ESE）的维度在能力EI与抑郁症状之间的关系中起中介作用。方法。样本包括来自西班牙哈恩省的115名机构养老老年人（女性占47.82%；年龄80.3±7.9岁），他们完成了一项ESE测试、一项能力EI测量以及一份抑郁症状自评问卷。结果。结果显示，老年人的情绪表现与抑郁症状之间存在正相关，且与ESE的关联比与EI能力的关联更强。此外，多重中介分析表明，ESE的四个维度中的两个完全中介了能力EI与抑郁症状之间的关系。讨论。这些发现表明，老年人高水平的情绪能力会产生一种ESE感，这种感觉可以保护他们免受抑郁症状的影响。本研究支持了情绪能力和ESE对一个特别容易患抑郁症的群体——机构养老老年人的心理健康的预测效度。讨论了本研究的局限性，并考虑了未来的研究方向。
