RT journal article
T1 Breast Cancer and Resilience: The Controversial Role of Perceived Emotional Intelligence
A1 Guil Bozal, Rocío
A1 Ruiz González, Paula
A1 Merchán Clavellino, Ana
A1 Morales Sánchez, Lucía
A1 Zayas García, Antonio
A1 Gómez Molinero, Rocío
A2 Psicología
K1 breast cancer
K1 resilience
K1 perceived emotional intelligence
K1 emotional attention
K1 emotional clarity
K1 mood repair
K1 mediation analysis
AB Cancer is a chronic disease that causes the most deaths in the world, being a public health problem nowadays. Even though breast cancer affects the daily lives of patients, many women become resilient after the disease, decreasing the impact of the diagnosis. Based on a positive psychology approach, the concept of co-vitality arises understood as a set of socio-emotional competencies that enhance psychological adaptation. In this sense, emotional intelligence is one of the main protective factors associated with resilience. However, it is not always as beneficial as it seems, and can lead to collateral effects on psychological adjustment. Given this controversy, this study aims to find the specific processes through which the dimensions of Perceived Emotional Intelligence (PEI) (Emotional Attention, Emotional Clarity, and Mood Repair) can act as a risk or protective factor in the development of resilience. The total sample was 167 women (Age: M = 43.26; SD = 12.43), 46.7% were breast cancer survivors, and 53.3% were healthy controls. The selection of women with breast cancer carries out randomly, recruited through the Oncology Units. The sample completed measures of resilience and PEI, through Resilience Scale (Wagnild and Young, 1993) and TMMS-24 (Salovey et al., 1995). The results showed that breast cancer survivors showed higher age and greater levels of resilience and mood repair than healthy women. The mediation analysis revealed that breast cancer survival and PEI predicted 28% of the variance of resilience. The direct effects showed that emotional clarity and mood repair increased resilience levels. Although breast cancer did not predict resilience directly, it does through mood repair by an indirect process. Besides, the analysis showed that emotional attention played a role in vulnerability, decreasing mood repair, and resilience. These research support theories that point to a possible dark side of PEI, thus, a great level of emotional attention makes dark the positive effect of mood repair and personal growth if a clear perception of emotions does not complement it. These results provide empirical support concerning the need to work complementary each dimension of PEI to avoid unwanted effects on intrapersonal adjustment.
PB FRONTIERS MEDIA SA
SN 1664-1078
YR 2020
FD 2020-12
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/25514
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/25514
LA eng
NO A part of this research was supported by the project e-Health for Quality of Life and Health promotion in Breast Oncology PIN0109-2018 funded by the Andalusian Ministry of Health and by the University Research Institute for Sustainable Social Development of the University of Cadiz.
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz
RD 07-nov-2026