Path analysis of the role of coping strategies between emotional intelligence and lifestyle habits during COVID-19 lockdown

ABSTRACT

The relationship between Emotional Intelligence (EI) and lifestyle choices during the COVID-19 pandemic is obscure and not very well understood. To clarify the mechanisms underlying this relationship, we proposed to test the hypothesis that different coping styles (avoidant and approach) have an indirect effect on the association between EI and many types of lifestyle habits. A cross-sectional study was conducted between December 2020 and January 2021. Our target sample consisted of Lebanese adults from the general population. In path analysis, approach coping mediated the association between EI and different lifestyle habits (rest, nutrition, general physical conditions), but not exercise. Furthermore, avoidant coping did mediate the association between EI and general physical conditions, but not between EI and other lifestyle choices (namely rest, exercise, and nutrition). To conclude, individuals with high EI, and that are users of approach coping strategies to deal with stressors, have increased rest time, healthy nutrition and general physical conditions. This cautiously implies that fostering approach coping may help improve the positive effects of EI on healthy lifestyles during crises such as this pandemic.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• lifestyle habits
• coping strategies
• emotional inteligence

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all participants.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contributions

SO, and SH conceived and designed the survey. SH was involved in the statistical analysis and data interpretation. SB wrote the manuscript. MA involved in the data collection and reviewed the manuscript. All authors read the manuscript, critically revised it for intellectual content, and approved the final version.

Availability of data and materials

All data generated or analyzed during this study are not publicly available due the restrictions by the ethics committee (data are owned by the Psychiatric Hospital of the Cross). The dataset supporting the conclusions is available upon request to Ms. Rana Nader ([email protected]), a member of the ethics committee at the Psychiatric Hospital of the Cross.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.