Emotional intelligence under stress: Useful, unnecessary, or irrelevant?

This investigation among 158 freshmen examined the association between emotional intelligence (emotion-relevant abilities) and stress (feelings of inability to control life events), considering personality (self-perception of the meta-emotion traits of clarity, intensity, and attention) as a moderating variable. Results suggest that emotional intelligence is potentially helpful in reducing stress for some individuals, but unnecessary or irrelevant for others. We highlight results among the highly stressed intense but confused participants in particular because they have average emotional intelligence, but do not appear to use it, presumably because they lack confidence in their emotional ability.