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This investigation examined the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and teenage alcohol / tobacco consumption. Emotional intelligence, understood as the ability to perceive, understand and regulate emotions in an adequate way, is associated to a reduction in conducts entailing a risk for health, including tobacco and alcohol consumption. The hypothesis of our study is that persons who have developed these abilities to a larger extent shall not resort to drug consumption in order to regulate their negative emotional states. The participants of the study were students aged between 11 and 21. In order to evaluate emotional intelligence, we used the Trait Meta Mood Scale and to evaluate consumption of addictive substances we resorted to the questionnaire on drugs of the National Observatory on Drugs. Teenagers scoring higher in Emotional Intelligence reveal smaller tobacco and alcohol consumption levels. Teenagers scoring lower in Emotional Intelligence resort to consumption of these substances as an external form of emotional self-regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based upon Mayer and Salovey´s EI model (1997), the purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between, emotional intelligence, assessed by the Trait Meta-Mood Scale (TMMS) and the Mayer Salovey Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT), the responses styles to depressed mood (rumination and distraction styles) and the levels of depression (Beck Depression Inventory; BDI) in a wide sample of high school and university students. The predictive validity of emotional intelligence on depression to depressed mood controlling for the effects of socio-demographic variables and different responses styles was also examined. In general, the results showed that although responses styles were the most significant predictor for depression, however, emotional intelligence predicted modest but significant variance. Finally, when the sample was divided into different groups, the slight and moderate-severe depression groups reported less emotional abilities than the normal group. Our findings support the consideration of EI as a theoretically relevant construct and predictive empirically individual differences in accounted for depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the possibility of theoretical integration of different measures of emotional regulation. In particular, we analyse the empirical relationship existing between such measures with the aim of gaining a better understanding of the mechanisms on which emotional management operates. The study was carried out with 161 undergraduates that were evaluated through three measures of emotional regulation: Perceived Emotional Intelligence (TMMS); Emotional Suppression and emotional reappraisal strategies (ERQ); Emotional coping (EAC) and in criterion variables such as Self-Esteem and Life Satisfaction (SWLS). Likewise, the present study investigates the incremental, convergent and discriminant validity of emotional regulation measures to account for the variance of the several criterion variables: life satisfaction and self-esteem. The results obtained pointed to the expected direction, showing that the dimensions of the various tendencies studied seem to be assessing in practise the same type of emotional management strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]