Department of Social Psychology, Social Work, Social Anthropology and East Asian Studies, University of Málaga, 29071 Málaga, Spain.
Department of Personality, Assessment and Psychological Treatment, University of Málaga, 29071 Málaga, Spain.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Jan 15;18(2):697. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18020697.
The unemployment rate has dramatically increased in southern Europe in the last decade. Although it is well-known that unemployment impairs mental health, the specific roles of personal resources like emotional intelligence (EI) and potential underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Prior studies have shown that resilience and self-esteem are mediators in the link between EI and mental health. The present study aims to bridge these gaps by testing a sequential path model. Specifically, we propose that EI is associated with lower depressive symptoms, which is explained by higher resilient coping strategies and a resulting increased self-esteem among unemployed individuals. A sample of Spanish unemployed persons completed measures of EI, resilience, self-esteem and depression. The results showed that higher levels of EI were positively associated with resilience and self-esteem and negatively related to depressive symptoms. Path analyses showed that resilience and self-esteem mediated the relation between EI and depression in sequence. These findings suggest that EI plays a key role in promoting mental health and provide preliminary evidence regarding potential mechanisms through which EI contributes to mental health during unemployment. Implications for assessing the absence of these positive resources in developing effective job search programs geared toward promoting mental health and re-employment are discussed.
在过去的十年中，南欧的失业率大幅上升。尽管众所周知，失业会损害心理健康，但个人资源（如情商）的具体作用以及潜在的潜在机制仍不清楚。先前的研究表明，韧性和自尊心是情商与心理健康之间联系的中介因素。本研究旨在通过测试一个顺序路径模型来弥补这些空白。具体来说，我们提出，情商与较低的抑郁症状有关，这可以通过失业者中较高的弹性应对策略和由此产生的自尊心增加来解释。一组西班牙失业者完成了情商、韧性、自尊心和抑郁的测量。结果表明，较高的情商水平与韧性和自尊心呈正相关，与抑郁症状呈负相关。路径分析表明，韧性和自尊心在情商和抑郁之间的关系中起中介作用。这些发现表明，情商在促进心理健康方面起着关键作用，并为情商在失业期间促进心理健康的潜在机制提供了初步证据。讨论了在制定旨在促进心理健康和重新就业的有效求职计划时评估缺乏这些积极资源的意义。
