Life satisfaction in emerging adults: The role of emotional and spiritual intelligences

Abstract

Objectives. The present research had two main objectives. The first was to examine the impact of emotional intelligence and aspects of spiritual intelligence on life satisfaction among emerging adults in high-income countries. The second objective was to study the interactions between the variables. Methods. First, we used predictive analysis to examine the impact of emotional and spiritual intelligences on life satisfaction beyond that accounted for by gender and by anxiety and depression. Second, we studied the interactions between the variables measured by means of decision-tree analysis. Results. Personal meaning production emerged as the primary determining factor of life satisfaction. In addition, the participants with both personal meaning production and emotional intelligence above a certain threshold had the highest average scores on life satisfaction. Conclusions. The results suggest that further research on emerging adults should investigate the critical issue of identity development, specifically regarding the impact of spiritual and emotional intelligence.

Keywords:

• Emotional intelligence
• identity
• life satisfaction
• mental health
• spiritual intelligence

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of Israel and received approval from the Tel Hai College.

Funding

No funding was used to support this research and/or the preparation of the manuscript.