Emotional Intelligence Partially Mediates the Association between Anxiety Sensitivity and Anxiety Symptoms1, 2. Issue 1 (February 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Killgore, William D. S.; Sonis, Lily A.; Rosso, Isabelle M.; Rauch, Scott L.
• Is Part Of: Psychological reports. Volume 118:Issue 1(2016)
• Page Start: 23
• Page End: 40
• Publication Date: 2016-02
• Subjects: emotional intelligence -- anxiety sensitivity -- mediation analysis; Psychology -- Periodicals; Psychiatry; Psychology; Psychologie -- Périodiques; Psychology; 150.5
• DOI: 10.1177/0033294115625563
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0033-2941

Abstract

Anxiety Sensitivity (AS), the propensity to fear the somatic, mental, and social consequences of anxiety, is associated with an elevated risk of developing anxiety disorders. It was hypothesized that Emotional Intelligence (EI) might serve as a mediating variable between AS and anxiety symptom expression. Sixty-one healthy adults (30 men, 31 women; M age = 30.4 yr., SD = 8.0), recruited through posted advertisements, completed the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI) and the ANX subscale of the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI), as well as three assessments of EI, including two indices of the Ability model of EI (MSCEIT; SREIS), and one index of the Trait model of EI (i.e., Bar-On EQ–i). Partial mediation between AS and ANX was found for the EQ–i but not for the MSCEIT or SREIS, as determined by the bootstrap method of mediation analysis. The association between AS and anxiety symptoms was partly explained through its effects on the intervening variable of Trait EI, and points to the possibility that interventions improving Trait EI may be useful in reducing the expression of anxiety symptoms in people with high AS.