Emotional Intelligence and Life Satisfaction: A Clear Link in 334 Students

Students who rated their emotional skills higher were more satisfied with their lives, a new study of 334 health sciences students in Ecuador reports¹. That link held after the researchers allowed for age, sex and course of study.

The findingHow Strong Is the Link Between Emotional Intelligence and Life Satisfaction?

Clear but modest. The correlation was 0.38, and in the full model emotional intelligence, age, sex and course together explained 10.7% of the differences in life satisfaction.

Emotional intelligence is the ability to notice, understand and manage feelings, in yourself and in others. The questionnaire used here asks people how much attention they pay to their feelings, how clearly they understand them and how well they can lift a bad mood.

The students studied medicine, nursing, nutrition and physiotherapy. They answered two standard questionnaires: the 24-item Trait Meta-Mood Scale for emotional intelligence and the five-item Satisfaction With Life Scale. Women reported lower life satisfaction than men, but there was no sex difference in emotional intelligence. Course and ethnic group made no clear difference to either.

Curious about your own emotional skills? Our emotional intelligence test gives you a score in minutes. For the wider picture, try the Big Five test or the personality test, and see how each of the 16 personality types tends to handle feelings.