The Relationship of Emotional Intelligence and Social Skills With Psychological Well-being in the Elderly

Abstract

Objectives Elderly People experience feelings of loneliness and isolation which is due to lack of social and emotional skills. Hence, we aimed to examine the relationship between emotional intelligence and social skills with psychological well-being in the elderly. Methods & Materials In this cross-sectional study, 210 elderly of Tehran City were enrolled using convenient sampling method. They completed Emotional Intelligence Inventory, Social Skill Inventory and Psychological Well-Being Inventory. Data were analyzed using Pearson and Canonical Correlation. Results Results indicated that components of emotional intelligence and social skills were positive predictors of psychological well-being in elderly. Canonical correlation analysis showed that four fundamental variables are needed to understand the relationships between the set of criterion and predicate variables. Fundamental coefficients for the first four dimension were 0.85, 0.58, 0.45 and 0.31 (P<0.005). Conclusion Lack of social skills and emotional intelligence are associated with low psychological well-being in elderly. So, training programs for improving these skills in the elderly are recommended.

Keywords

• Emotional intelligence
• Social skills
• Psychological well-being
• Elderly people