Relationship between stressful life events and emotional intelligence in Mexican adolescentsmale vs. female comparative study

Zusammenfassung

Introduction: adolescents can present high levels of stress when faced with various biopsychosocial changes, affecting their daily activities and influencing the initiation and development of risk behaviours and/or a mental disorder. Therefore, it is important to identify protective factors against stress, such as emotional intelligence, for adolescents. Objective: determine the effect of stressful life events (SLE) and perceived emotional intelligence (PEI) on the stress level in adolescent high school students and identify differences by sex. Method: cross-sectional study, 1 417 adolescents (57% women and 43% men), with an average age of 15.90 (SD = .91), who were evaluated in levels of PEI, SLE, and stress perceived. Results: the results show high rates of stressful events experienced. Attention to emotions increases the perception of stress in both sexes, while clarity and emotional repair have a stress-reducing effect on women. Discussion and conclusions: the results suggest that the PEI is determinant in the emotional self-control and the adaptive capacity of the adolescent to face stressful situations.