Resilience as a mediating variable between emotional intelligence and optimism-pessimism among university students in Spanish universities

Emotional Intelligence and resilience have become two crucial skills for the development of the individual, and they are also valid indicators of academic success at the university. Based on recent literature, the aim of this study was to determine the causal relationship between emotional intelligence and optimism vs. pessimism, with resilience as a mediating variable, using the partial least squares (PLS-SEM) path model approach. To this end, 553 university students from education degrees courses participated in the study (418 women, 75.58%; 135 men, 24.42%), with a mean age of 20.31 years (+/- 3.46). The instruments used to assess the factors were the Rotterdam Emotional Intelligence Scale (REIS), the 14-Item Resilience Scale (RS-14) and Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R). The results showed a statistically significant relationship between the dimensions of the instruments used, with the following coefficients of determination: personal competence (r(2) = .416), acceptance of self and life (r(2) = .334) , optimism (r(2) = .445) and pessimism (r(2) = .174), with a root mean square error (SRMR) of .074. The practical consequences will enable a deeper understanding of the impact of emotional intelligence through resilience to guide universities in the development of appropriate training in the personal and academic development processes of their students.