Social-Emotional intelligence as predictor of general mental health

The Present study was designed to investigate Social-Emotional intelligence and its components, as predictors of general mental health dimensions in adults.
Method: Bar-on Emotional Quotient Inventory and General Health Questionnaire adiministered 410 Ministry of health officers in 14 provinces throughout Iran. The EQ- i consists of 5 factors and 15 components including intrapersonal (emotional self-awareness, assertiveness, self-regard, self-actualization, independency), interpersonal (empathy, responsibility, interpersonal relations), adaptability (problem solving, reality testing, flexibility) stress management (stress tolerance, impulse control), and general mood factor (happiness, optimism). The GHQ also includes scores for somatic preoccupations, anxiety, social function, and depression. GHQ cut-off point (23) was used to differentiate less mentally healthy (N=94) and more healthy (N= 298) participants to run separate analysis.
Results: Stepwise multivariate regression analyses were used for statistical analyses. There was a significant regression effect for EI scales in less healthy group. The best predictors of EI in this group were stress tolerance for general health, impulse control and responsibility for somatic symptoms, optimism and reality testing for social function and happiness for depression, anxiety and general health. Also there was a significant regression effect between EI components and GHQ scales in more mentally healthy group. The best predictors of EI in this group were stress tolerance for all GHQ subscales and total score. Impulse control was found to be predictor of anxiety while depression could be predicted by happiness and realtiy testing was predictor of both social function and general health.
Conclusion: Emotional intelligence (EI) is a significant predictor of general mental health, These results suggest that EI enhancement, especially stress management skills, skills in mood-state control and adaptability skills like effective reality- testing for problem solving and flexibility in interpersonal relations, leads to increased mental health. The results revealed somewhat different predictors of mental health for less healthy and more mentally healthy groups. It may also be that such programs will need to be tailored differently to less healthy and more mentally healthy individuals, to maximize intervention benefits.