Emotion Regulation as a Moderator of the Ability Emotional Intelligence-Stress Reactivity Relationship

Ability emotional intelligence (AEI), defined as a set of skills specialized for processing emotional information, is associated with adaptive outcomes such as social support, well-being, and life satisfaction. However, recent research also suggests that higher AEI may result in higher stress reactivity. The present study evaluated both adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation and forms of coping (task-, emotion-, and avoidance-oriented) as moderators of the AEI-stress reactivity relationship. We predicted that the relationship between AEI and stress reactivity would be moderated by adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation and forms of coping. A total of 120 participants were recruited from a previous research study (aged 18–30, M age = 20.69, SD age = 2.20, 46% women), whereby they completed measures of AEI, emotion regulation, and coping, followed by an in-person laboratory study one year later. Participants completed a pre-task assessment of their current emotional state and then presented a 3-min video-recorded presentation in front of two neutral evaluators. Galvanic skin response (GSR-M) was used to measure physiological stress. Results showed that maladaptive emotion regulation influenced the relationship between AEI (emotional understanding) and physiological stress, such that emotional understanding was significantly and positively related to physiological stress in participants with above-average levels of maladaptive emotion regulation. Our findings indicated that levels of AEI could have a deleterious effect on stress reactivity. That is, our findings suggest that when people low in EI tend to use suppression, the negative effects of maladaptive ER are amplified. Thus, emotion regulation strategies can be a critical factor in determining how much stress a person might experience when encountering an emotion-laden task.