The Association Between Emotional Intelligence and Suicidal Behavior: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Background: Some meta-analyses have demonstrated the association between emotional intelligence (EI) and different health indicators. With the increase of suicide cases in the world, more and more professionals have been interested in the link between both variables.Aim: To study all the available evidence on the association between EI and suicidal behavior.Method: We systematically reviewed all available literature (in English or Spanish) on the relationship between both variables through the main databases.Results: Twenty-five articles were included. EI and suicidal behavior correlated inversely in almost all the articles that the Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i), The Emotional Intelligence Test (EIT), The Spanish Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS), and The Schutte Emotional Intelligence Scale (EIS/SSEIT), Barchard's Emotional Intelligence Scale, were used, that is, the higher suicidal behavior level the lower the EI score. The same results were found in two out of four investigations that used the Trait Meta-Mood Scale (TMMS-24) between clarity (emotional understanding) and emotional repair (emotional regulation) and suicidal behavior. Two out of three studies that used the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) found that only the Strategic component of EI (emotional understanding and regulation) was a protective factor.Conclusions: The results appear to indicate that a high level of EI plays an important role in protecting against suicidal behavior, and should thus be integrated into suicide prevention programs.

Emotional Intelligence and Mental Health in the Family: The Influence of Emotional Intelligence Perceived by Parents and Children

“…The correlation analysis shows significant relationships between variables such as children’s self-reported repair and mental health and inversely with self-reported attention. These results corroborate previous studies on EI and mental health, where the attention and repair factors usually show the most significant relationships with the criteria variables of well-being or emotional adjustment [ 2 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 21 ]. With relation to the EI perceived by the parents about their children, only one significant correlation can be found, i.e., the greater the attention perceived by mothers about their children, the lower is the children’s self-reported mental health.…”

“…Self-reports are a subjective measure to evaluate EI since they assess the perception of our EI [ 1 , 4 ]. Self-assessment measures have been shown to have a significant relationship with key criteria variables of mental health, psychological adjustment, and well-being [ 2 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ].…”

“…In short, the relationship between EI and mental health has been demonstrated through several meta-analyses [ 8 , 17 , 18 ] and extensive reviews [ 5 , 19 ]. The research in this field concludes that people with mental health problems have a significantly lower level of EI than the general population.…”

Untangling the Emotional Intelligence-Suicidal Ideation Connection: The Role of Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies in Adolescents

“…Accumulated evidence has shown consistent links between EI and the development and use of effective cognitive, affective and behavioural strategies that help individuals to cope with stress and negative events, leading to higher psychological health and well-being [ 10 , 11 ] and lower levels of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts [ 7 , 12 , 13 ]. During adolescence, EI has proved to be a protective factor for both suicidal ideation and suicide attempts in samples of adolescents without a history of traumatic events [ 8 , 14 ]. More interestingly, EI also has been found to mitigate the negative influence of cyberbullying and bullying on emotional adjustment (e.g., depressive symptomatology) [ 9 , 15 ] and suicidal ideation/behaviours [ 16 ].…”

“…However, to date, no studies have examined the role of EI and emotion regulation cognitive strategies in explaining suicidal ideation in adolescence. In addition, there are still many gaps limiting our understanding of the underlying processes involved in EI and suicide in adolescence, given that much of the prior work has used adult samples and cross-sectional designs [ 8 ]. Thus, gaining knowledge about how EI and adaptive/maladaptive emotion regulation strategies are related to suicidal ideation among adolescents using prospective designs might be useful in order to measure and develop more tailored and effective programmes to prevent or minimize thoughts of death or suicide in future episodes.…”