The Relationship between Emotional Intelligence, Feeling of Happiness, and Quality of Life among Older Adults Residing in the Assisted Living Facilities in Alexandria, Egypt

Background: High emotional intelligence has important practical implications because it is linked to happy and satisfied life, which leads to a higher quality of life and a more subjective well-being. Objective: to examine the relationship between emotional intelligence, feeling of happiness, and quality of life among older adults residing in the assisted living facilities in Alexandria, Egypt. Design: A descriptive correlational research design. Setting: The study was carried out in two assisted living facilities in Alexandria, Egypt namely; Dar El Hana (governmental elderly home) and Dar Mohammed Ragab (none governmental elderly home). Subjects: 150 older adults (out of 168) of both sexes residing in the previously mentioned settings. Tools: five tools were used for data collection: 1) Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), 2) Sociodemographic and Clinical Data Structured Interview Schedule of Older Adults Residing in the Assisted Living Facilities, 3) Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS), 4) Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS), 5) The LIEPAD Questionnaire Scale. Results: The key results of this study showed that while the study subjects reported reasonably high emotional intelligence in its total domains with a mean percent score of (72.8±13.1), they typically feel moderately happy (53.3±15.7). In addition, more than one-half (54.0%) of the participants had mild impairment in their quality of life and the rest (46.0%) had moderate impairment. Conclusion: The emotional intelligence is positively associated with subjective happiness and cognitive wellbeing, although there is a clear negative correlation between the emotional intelligence of the study subjects and their quality of life. Recommendations: Designing and implementing of educational intervention programs for elderly people residing in assisted living facilities by gerontological nurses, focusing on improvement of emotional skills and the most appropriate coping techniques for their feelings to enhance their quality of life and subjective wellbeing.