Resource building as a mechanism of action of emotional intelligence on subjective wellbeing: the role of proactive coping

The consistent finding in the literature of a positive relationship between Emotional intelligence (EI) and Subjective well-being (SWB) has led to the search for mechanisms of action that increase our understanding of what EI involves and how it works. Within this framework, the current study explored the relationship between proactive coping and EI and SWB, as well as its possible mediating role in the relationship between both variables. With this aim, two studies were carried out in an adolescent population based on two theoretical frameworks of EI, and consequently, using different measurement instruments (mixed EI model: TEIQue-ASF / ability-EI model: TMMS-24). A total of 1381 Spanish adolescents (977 in Study 1; 404 in Study 2) were included in the research. The results supported (i) the relationship between proactive coping and EI and SWB in both studies, although with such high association values in the case of the self-reported mixed model, which pointed to some content overlap, as well as (ii) the mediating role of proactive coping in the EI-SWB link, only in the case of the self-reported ability model. These results are discussed in light of the multiple aspects included in the self-reported mixed model, some of which fall outside the focus of EI. The broad conception offered by this model may be spuriously increasing its predictive capacity with respect to different criterion variables, while at the same time making it difficult to advance our understanding of why these relationships exist.