What Predicts Happiness and Self-Congruence in Chinese Young Adults?: Beyond Grit and Emotional Intelligence, Does Amor Fati Matter?

This study sought to determine if amor fati might add incremental validity in predicting positive psychological adjustment, namely, subjective happiness and self-congruence, over grit and emotional intelligence in 170 (96 male & 74 female) Chinese young adults. As expected, grit was found to account for significant variance in both indices of positive adjustment. When facets of emotional intelligence were included as a set, it was found to account for additional incremental validity in both indices of positive adjustment. However, within the emotional intelligence set, only using emotions emerged as a significant predictor of both subjective happiness and self-congruence. Finally, when amor fati was added to the prediction model, it was found to account for additional incremental validity in both indices of positive adjustment, beyond the variance accounted for by both grit and emotional intelligence. Overall, these findings not only provide important support for the usefulness of grit and some aspects of emotional intelligence, namely, using emotions, in Chinese young adults, but they also add further support for the usefulness of amor fati as an important and distinct predictor of positive psychological adjustment in Easterners.