Trait Emotional Intelligence as Mediator Between Psychological Control and Behaviour Problems

Abstract

The main aim of this study was to examine the relationship between psychological control and trait Emotional Intelligence (trait EI), while also testing the mediating role of trait EI in the relationship between psychological control and behaviour problems. A total of 260 adolescents, between 13 and 17 years old, participated in the study. Participants completed the Psychological Control Scale-Youth Self-Report to evaluate their perception of parental psychological control, the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire to measure adolescent's selfevaluation of trait EI, and the Child Behavior CheckList to investigate adolescents' self-evaluation of their behavioural and emotional problems. Results showed that adolescents' perception of parental psychological control negatively predicted trait EI, and that trait EI negatively predicted internalising and externalising problems. Furthermore, structural equation modelling showed that trait EI was a full mediator in the relationship between perceptions of parental psychological control and internalising problems and a partial mediator between paternal psychological control and externalising problems. These results suggest independent additive effects. Identifying a mediating variable not only between psychological control and internalising problems, but also between psychological control and externalising, seems to be worthwhile for new research, as it emphasises the emotional mechanism behind the relationship between psychological and behavioural problems. Our findings represent a timely contribution to the literature in light of recent descriptions of how parental psychological control can affect internalising and externalising problems.

Perceived Parental Psychological Control and Learned Helplessness: The Role of School Self-efficacy

“…Whereas initial research on psychological control focused on behavior problems externalizing and internalizing (Gugliandolo, Costa, Cuzzocrea, & Larcan, 2014;Soenens, Park, Vansteenkiste, & Mouratidis, 2012;Stone et al, 2013), recent studies have found that the negative effects of psychological control extend to diverse areas of adolescents' functioning, such as the scholastic and academic contexts; psychological control, in fact, is shown to be negatively related to school grades and performance (e.g., Aunola & Nurmi, 2004;Bean, Bush, McKenry, & Wilson, 2003) and to feelings of academic competence Soucy & Larose, 2000).…”

“…Barber et al (2005), for instance, showed that this scale had adequate psychometric properties and was related to developmental outcomes in theoretically predictable ways across ten different countries. Previous studies (Costa et al, 2014c;Gugliandolo et al, 2014) have widely used the Italian version of the instruments showing good level of reliability (a range between .62 and .81). Cronbach's a for this study was .69 for mothers and .76 for fathers.…”

The relationships among parental psychological control/autonomy support, self‐trouble, and internalizing problems across adolescent genders

“…During the development of adolescents’ maladaptive outcomes, researches have consistently suggested that specific parenting behaviors, such as parental psychological control and autonomy support, play an important role (Gugliandolo, Costa, Cuzzocrea & Larcan, ; Schleider, Vélez, Krause & Gillham, ). Psychological control refers to parents controlling children's psychology world, manipulating and limiting children's emotion expression, and making children emotionally dependent on them (e.g., Mills & Rubin, ).…”

Dimensions of Emotional Intelligence and Online Gaming Addiction in Adolescence: The Indirect Effects of Two Facets of Perceived Stress

“…According to Chan (2003) and Li et al (2009), trait emotional intelligence can be separated into four dimensions, namely, self-management of emotions (i.e., self-awareness, understanding and regulation of one’s own emotions), social skills (i.e., explicit actions that individuals take to respond to social tasks), empathy (i.e., the awareness and management of others’ emotions) and utilization of emotions (i.e., an individual’s use of emotions). Numerous studies suggest that, emotional intelligence was positively associated with improved psychological health (Fernández-Abascal and Martín-Díaz, 2015), as well as negatively associated with problem behaviors (Siu, 2009; Gugliandolo et al, 2015). However, so far, only a few studies have investigated the associations between emotional intelligence and internet addiction in adolescence (Parker et al, 2008; van Deursen et al, 2015).…”