Physical health and EQ profiling of medical disordersDate of publication: 08/07/2007 This section is still being developed but will eventually contain complete summaries of studies that have studied physical health and conducted EQ profiling of medical disorders based on the Bar-On conceptual and psychometric model of emotional-social intelligence. In the meantime, I have summarized the key studies that I am aware of. Should you wish to share findings from a study that you have conducted or have detailed information on studies that others have conducted focusing on this topic, please use the template provided above for summarizing this study and email it to us (info@reuvenbaron.org). You are invited to provide results that confirm or refute these findings and help us understand this area better. Three studies suggest that there is a moderate yet significant relationship between emotional-social intelligence and physical health [Bar-On, 2004; Krivoy et al., 2000].
In the first study [Krivoy at al., 2000], the EQ-i results of 35 adolescent cancer survivors were compared with those of a control group comprising 35 randomly selected adolescents from the local normative population sample. In addition to revealing significant differences between the two groups with respect to overall emotional-social intelligence, the most powerful EQ-i subscale that was able to distinguish between the experimental and control groups was Optimism, which is an important facilitator of emotionally and socially intelligent behavior.
In another study conducted by me [Bar-On, 2004], 3,571 adults completed the EQ-i and responded to the following question: “I feel good about my health in general.” This question was meant to provide a self-perceived assessment of physical health so that I could examine the degree to which it may be influenced by emotional-social intelligence; and the results of a multiple regression analysis rendered an overall correlation of .49. There is a growing body of medical literature which suggests that self-perceived health is significantly correlated with clinically assessed health and is a good predictor of one’s overall physical condition [Shadbolt et al., 2002].
In another fairly recent study [Bar-On & Fund, 2004], a population sample of 2,514 male recruits in the Israeli Defense Forces completed the EQ-i in the beginning of their tour of duty. From this sample, 91 recruits were identified as having medical profiles indicating mild or minor health problems that allowed them to continue to serve in the military with very few limitations. An additional 42 recruits were found, who were shown to have more severe medical problems, yet not severe enough to justify a medical discharge. I then randomly selected an additional group of 42 recruits from the sample (n=2,514) who did not receive a medical profile and were thus considered to be physically healthy. This procedure created three groups representing three different levels of physical health. A multiple regression analysis was applied to the data, using the three different levels of physical health as the dependent variable and the recruits’ scores on the 15 EQ-i subscales as the independent variables. The analysis rendered an overall correlation of .37 suggesting a low-moderate yet significant relationship between emotional-social intelligence and physical health for the sample studied.
Based on the most powerful EQ-i scales that surfaced in the above-mentioned studies, it appears that (a) the ability to be aware of oneself, (b) the ability to manage emotions and handle stress, (c) the ability to solve problems of a personal and interpersonal nature, and (d) the ability to maintain an optimistic disposition are significantly related to physical health.
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