How Does Social Support and Emotional Intelligence Enhance Life Satisfaction Among Adolescents? A Mediational Analysis Study

Abstract

Introduction

The decline in life satisfaction throughout adolescence has led research to focus on variables that facilitate life satisfaction, such as social support and trait emotional intelligence. However, the relationship dynamics between the main sources of social support (family, friends and teachers), trait emotional intelligence (emotional attention, clarity and repair), and life satisfaction have yet to be elucidated.

Objective

Therefore, the aim of this study is to test and compare a set of structural models that integrate these three variables.

Methods

A sample of 1397 middle school students (48% males, 52% females) with age range 12–16 years (M = 13.88, SD = 1.27) was selected.

Results

The data showed that trait emotional intelligence significantly mediated the effect of the social support network on life satisfaction, highlighting the greater contribution of family support, emotional clarity, and emotional repair as enabling factors of adolescent well-being.

Discussion

Psychoeducational and social implications of these results are discussed.

Keywords:

• social support
• trait emotional intelligence
• life satisfaction
• mediation analysis
• structural equation models

Data Sharing Statement

Data not available due to privacy or ethical restrictions. The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

Ethics Approval

The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the Committee on Ethics for Research Involving Human Subjects (CEISH) of the University of the Basque Country (M10/2015/076). Informed consent was obtained from the participants and their legal guardians.

Acknowledgments

The authors of this study are members of the Consolidated Research Group IT1719-22 of the Basque University System, as well as of the project EDU2017-83949-P of the State Subprogram of Knowledge Generation of the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness of Spain, through which this work has been funded.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.