Abstract
This study contributes to knowledge on psychosomatic research by examining a moderated mediation model in which emotional intelligence (EI) is related to mental health, physical health and suicide risk through perceived stress, in samples of short-term (n = 364) and long-term (n = 594) unemployed individuals. The moderating effect of emotional intelligence on the relationships between perceived stress and mental and physical health and suicide risk was tested. The results showed that emotional intelligence was positively associated with mental and physical health and negatively associated with perceived stress and suicide risk. The proposed model only predicted mental health and suicide risk in the long-term unemployed sample. This suggests that emotional intelligence may act as a buffer against the negative impact of unemployment-related stress on mental health and suicide risk when unemployment is prolonged. Therefore, interventions targeting both the promotion of mental health and the prevention of suicide risk via the promotion of emotional abilities may consider length of unemployment.
Highlights
There is wide agreement that unemployment is one of the main socioeconomic predictors of health [1,2]
Based on the above-mentioned literature, we proposed that emotional intelligence (EI) has an indirect relationship with general mental health (H1A), general physical health (H2A), and suicide risk (H3A), which is mediated by perceived stress
These findings suggest EI may act as a psychological resource, potentially explaining a more adaptive coping with unemployment-related stress [13] and, in turn, facilitating a lower impact of stress on ill-health and risk of suicide [19,29]
Summary
There is wide agreement that unemployment is one of the main socioeconomic predictors of health [1,2]. Meta-analytic review has shown that unemployment is associated with reduced emotional wellbeing and physical complaints [4]. This association between unemployment and decreased emotional wellbeing contributes to an explanation of the fact that unemployed individuals have worse psychological health than their employed counterparts [5]. A number of studies have provided data on the impact of being unemployed on a wide range of health outcomes, including distress, physical complaints, mental disorders, and suicidality [1,6,7]. It has been demonstrated that being unemployed is associated with an increased risk of suicide, irrespective of prior mental health status [8]. Less is known about the psychological resources that may reduce the impact of unemployment on an individual’s health
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