Are Coping Strategies, Emotional Abilities, and Resilience Predictors of Well-Being? Comparison of Linear and Non-Linear Methodologies

Emotional intelligence (EI), problem-oriented coping, and resilience have been deeply studied as psychological predictors of wellbeing in stressful daily situations. The aim was to find out whether coping, EI, and resilience are predictors of well-being, using two statistical methodologies (hierarchical regression models and comparative qualitative models). With this objective in mind, we built an online evaluation protocol and administered it to 427 Spanish people, exploring these variables through a selection of validated tests. The extracted data were studied using linear predictive tests (hierarchical regression models), as well as fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis. We found that EI variables had important associations with coping, positive affect, negative affect, and life satisfaction, and also acted as relevant predictors for all of them, together with resilience and problem-oriented coping. The fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis showed a series of logical combinations of conditional causes and results of each potential configuration for these variables. The interaction between the presence of EI, resilience, and coping resulted in high levels of well-being. On the other hand, the presence of high emotional attention in interaction with low resilience and low coping abilities resulted in low well-being. These results increase knowledge about protective factors and allow for the creation of intervention programmes to enhance them.