Perceived health and emotional intelligence.

Abstract

The Fourth World Conference on Women showed that women have the right to enjoy the highest health. Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not186 Abstractsmerely the absence of disease. In 1999, Commission on the Status of Women of the United Nations stated the need to adopt measures to improve women health quality. Motivated by these proposals, and knowing the linking between perceived health and emotional intelligence (Fernández-Berrocal & Extremera, 2007), we design and apply an emotional intelligence program, based on Mayer & Salovey Model (1997), with the objective of improving perceived health. After a mean comparison, we check that experimental group (N= 50) increases in a significant way in every variable of SF36 Health Survey not only when concluding the program but also in comparison with the control group (N=50). These findings allow us to confirm the importance of working emotions to improve emotional health.