Self-reported and self-perceived emotional intelligence and trait anxiety in early adolescence: differentiated concurrent associations and sex differences

Abstract Background Trait anxiety is common in early adolescence and is linked to poorer academic and psychosocial functioning. Emotional intelligence has been proposed as a protective factor, but evidence suggests that different emotional components may show distinct positive or negative associations with anxiety. This study investigated whether a global, self-reported indicator of emotional intelligence relates to trait anxiety through three self-perceived emotional processes—attention to feelings, emotional clarity, and emotional repair—and whether these pathways differ by sex. Methods A cross-sectional correlational design was implemented with 743 Spanish adolescents aged 12–15 years (46.0% boys). Participants completed the Emotional Quotient Inventory: Youth Version (global emotional intelligence), the 24-item Trait Meta-Mood Scale (attention, clarity, repair), and the trait anxiety scale of the State–Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children. Analyses included descriptive statistics and bivariate associations, followed by a regression-based conditional process model of concurrent indirect associations, with emotional attention, clarity, and repair entered as parallel statistical mediators, sex specified as a moderator of the mediator–outcome associations, and age included as a covariate. Indirect effects were evaluated using 5,000 bootstrap resamples with bias-corrected 95% confidence intervals. A multigroup structural equation modeling approach by sex was used to examine robustness and to check that the measurement structure was comparable across groups. Results Global emotional intelligence showed a significant negative direct association with trait anxiety (unstandardized coefficient = − 0.24, p < .001). The conditional indirect-association model showed differentiated patterns: greater attention to feelings was associated with higher trait anxiety, whereas greater emotional clarity and greater emotional repair were associated with lower trait anxiety. Sex moderated these associations, with a stronger positive association between emotional attention and trait anxiety and stronger inverse associations for emotional clarity and repair among girls. Multigroup structural equation modeling produced convergent results, supporting comparable measurement structure across sexes and showing stronger concurrent associations with anxiety among girls. Conclusions Global and facet-level self-reported emotional intelligence were concurrently associated with trait anxiety in differentiated ways, and the magnitude of these associations varied by sex. These findings identify potentially relevant correlational patterns that warrant longitudinal and intervention research before causal or preventive conclusions can be drawn.