The Relationship between Trait Emotional Intelligence, Cognition, and Emotional Awareness: An Interpretative Model

Emotional awareness (EA) has been defined as the cognitive skill devoted to the identification and description of one\u2019s own and others\u2019 emotional experiences, an ability that has usually been conceptualized along with the development of cognitive intelligence. Despite this, EA has also been deemed a central constituent of Emotional Intelligence (EI), a construct that captures individual differences in how we perceive, communicate, regulate, and understand our own emotions, as well as the emotions of others. The overlap between the cognitive and the emotional domain in the definition of the EA construct has created several difficulties in both its understanding and its usage, so much so that several questions regarding its nature and structure remain unanswered. The aim of the present work was to test in a unique model the explanatory role of both trait EI and fluid nonverbal intelligence on EA variability in children, controlling for the effect of age, a variable strictly related to cognitive development, as well as gender, which is highly associated with trait EI during childhood. Four hundred and eighty-eight pupils (258 females and 230 males) ranging from 8 to 12 years old completed the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale for Children, the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire \u2013 Child Form, and a measure of pure non-verbal reasoning ability, the Raven\u2019s Progressive Matrices. The results of a structural equation model showed a positive explanatory power of both Raven and TEIQue scores on EA, revealing that both cognitive intelligence and trait EI significantly explained EA. The same model also showed an indirect effect of age, via intelligence scores, on EA, suggesting that the increase of EA with age could be partially imputed to the development of intelligence. Finally, a relation between gender and TEIQue scores confirmed higher trait EI scores in girls than in boys. The implications emerging from this model are discussed

Trait emotional intelligence and eating problems in adults: associations with alexithymia and substance use

Background: Eating Disorders (EDs) often co-occur with substance use contributing to increasing concern about the individual's health; both the conditions share several core features such as the tendency to use maladaptive emotion regulation strategies. The present study investigated associations between trait emotional intelligence (Trait EI), alexithymia and EDs, namely dieting, bulimia and oral control, in a nonclinical sample of adults. Moreover, the relationships with substance use frequencies were also examined with the aim of exploring the links between personality emotional competence traits (trait EI and alexithymia) and different addictive risk behaviours (EDs and substance use) in adulthood.Methods: Data were collected from a convenience sample composed of 394 (312 women; between ages 18 and 65; mean age = 32.34; SD = 11.97) participants, through online administration of questionnaires assessing trait emotional intelligence (TEIQue-SF), eating problems (EAT-26), alexithymia (TAS-20) and frequency of substance use (in the last year).Results: The group that exceeds the cut-off for EDs (n = 58; 14.7 %) has significantly lower trait EI scores (in all dimensions) and higher alexithymia scores than the other group. Some differences between the two groups were found on frequencies of nicotine and diuretics use. Age and all trait EI factors were negatively associated with eating disorders and alexithymia. Weak inverse correlations have emerged between EI and frequencies of substance use (namely cocaine, amphetamines, alcohol and tobacco). Female gender, well-being and self-control factors of EI emerged as significant predictors of EDs in adulthood.Conclusions: Our results suggest the importance of targeting emotion dysregulation for EDs and substance use behaviours. Interventions aimed at promoting healthy lifestyles could benefit from trait EI enhancement efforts. Practitioners and health educators need to recognize the potential efficacy of including trait EI within gender specific interventions planned to address ED symptoms and addictive behaviours in general

A machine learning approach to evaluate the influence of higher-order generalized variables on shell free vibrations

This work focuses on deriving guidelines for choosing structural theories for composite shells using Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN). The Axiomatic/Asymptotic Method (AAM) is used to evaluate higher-order structural theories’ accuracy and computational efficiency based on polynomial expansions. AAM exploits the Carrera Unified Formulation to derive the finite element matrices and obtain natural frequencies. The outcomes of AAM concerning the accuracy and computational cost are used to train CNN for various composite shell configurations. The trained network can then be used as a substitute for finite element models to estimate the accuracy of a given structural theory. The results are provided via Best Theory Diagrams (BTD), in which the set of generalized displacement variables to retain the best accuracy can be read for a given amount of nodal degrees of freedom. Verification is carried out using results from FEM. The results proved the computational efficiency of CNN and highlighted the influence of the shell thickness for the proper choice of the structural theory. Third-order terms and transverse stretching are often necessary to obtain acceptable accuracy

Thermoelastic micromechanical analysis of CFRP with voids

The work investigates the effect of dispersed air gaps – voids – within the matrix on the local stress and strain fields and the influence on the thermoelastic properties of carbon fiber reinforced plastic polymers (CFRPs). The micromechanics framework is based on the use of 1D higher-order structural theories obtained via the Carrera Unified Formulation (CUF) and periodic boundary conditions (PBC), including plasticity over the matrix. Voids are randomly generated within the matrix, considering different volume fractions. Moreover, several distributions at the same void volume fraction permit to perform statistical analyses of the results. Based on numerical results, increasing void fractions leads to higher stress and strain values. Regarding the thermoelastic properties, the results show a good agreement with the benchmarks, thus confirming that voids have a remarkable effect on thermoelastic properties

Trait emotional intelligence and adolescent psychological well-being: a systematic review

Trait emotional intelligence (trait EI) has a protective role in adolescence, linked to better well-being and social interactions. However, research on these topics with adolescent samples is limited and has not yet been systematized in the field. The present work aims to scrutinize the extant trait EI literature and adolescent psychological well-being. Since operationalization is crucial for any EI model, the review focused on studies that used the adolescent forms of the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue). A search conducted in EBSCO Essentials, Google Scholar, Scopus, Web of Science, and Psyc Articles in October 2023 identified 34 articles. Findings are discussed under five subsections: gender differences, psychological constructs, parental relations, scholastic constructs, and practice-oriented topics. The review corroborates the protective role of trait EI in adolescent psychological well-being. Future studies should aspire to extend research in cross-cultural settings with more rigorous designs

The high-intensity hyperon beam at CERN

A high-intensity hyperon beam was constructed at CERN to deliver Sigma- to experiment WA89 at the Omega facility and operated from 1989 to 1994. The setup allowed rapid changeover between hyperon and conventional hadron beam configurations. The beam provided a Sigma-flux of 1.4 x 10^5 per burst at mean momenta between 330 and 345 Gev/c, produced by about 3 x 10^10 protons of 450 GeV/c . At the experiment target the beam had a Sigma-/pi- ratio close to 0.4 and a size of 1.6 x 3.7 cm^2. The beam particle trajectories and their momenta were measured with a scintillating fibre hodoscope in the beam channel and a silicon microstrip detector at the exit of the channel. A fast transition radiation detector was used to identify the pion component of the beam.Comment: 20 pages, 13 figures. Submitted to Nucl. Instr. Meth.

Maternal and Paternal Representations in Assisted Reproductive Technology and Spontaneous Conceiving Parents: A Longitudinal Study

Aim of this study was to investigate whether parental mental representations during pregnancy and after delivery differed between parents who conceived after Assisted Reproductive Treatments (ART) and spontaneous conceiving (SC) parents. Effects of specific ART variables (previous ART attempts, treatment type and cause of infertility) were also taken into account. Seventeen ART couples and 25 SC couples were recruited at Santa Maria Nuova Hospital (Reggio Emilia, Italy). At both 32 weeks of gestation (T1) and 3 months postpartum (T2) participants completed the Semantic Differential of the IRMAG, a self-report tool which measures specific domains of mental representations pertaining either individual (Child, Self-as-woman/man, and Partner) or parental (Self-as-parent, Own parent) characteristics. Results showed that ART parents had significantly more positive representations of the child compared to SC parents, while the scores at Partner dimension improved from T1 to T2 for SC parents only. With regards to ART history, scores at the Self-as-woman/man dimension were significantly less positive for ICSI than IVF parents and improved substantially from T1 to T2 only in case of mothers with previous ART attempts and of fathers at the first ART cycle. The representation of own parents increased from T1 to T2 in case of infertility diagnosis due to male factors, while a decrease emerged when infertility was due to female factors. Findings suggest the need to investigate parental mental representations after ART, in order to improve the understanding on the transition to parenthood of infertile couples and to target more specific intervention for parenting support

The Relationship between Knowing Sign Language and Quality of Life among Italian People Who Are Deaf: A Cross-Sectional Study

Deafness is a medical condition with important relational implications. This conditioncould affect well-being and self-esteem and cause social anxiety. Sign language is not only a simplemimic but can be considered as a different kind of communication that could be protective for thosewho have learned it. However, some people do not use sign language because they think it canbe marginalizing. The present study aimed to compare the quality of life (QoL) between peoplewho learned Italian sign language as their first language with those who had never learned it orlearned it later. This cross-sectional study involved 182 deaf Italian adults (70.3% females) who wererecruited from Ente Nazionale Sordi (ENS) and by the main online deafness groups. The presentresults suggest that the deaf condition does not seem to significantly affect the dimensions of QoLpertaining to satisfaction and self-esteem, while it could have an effect on preventing high levels of social anxiety and in particular, the group who learned Italian sign language showed significantlyless social anxiety than those who had never learned it

Quality of Life and Job Loss during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Mediation by Hopelessness and Moderation by Trait Emotional Intelligence

This study contributes to the knowledge on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic by examining a moderated mediation model in which the impact of job loss over quality of life (QoL) is mediated by hopelessness and moderated by trait emotional intelligence (trait EI). Data were collected from a large nationally representative Italian sample of adult workers (N = 1610), who completed a series of anonymous online questionnaires. Total, direct and indirect effects were estimated through bootstrapped mediated moderation analyses providing 95% bias corrected bootstrap confidence intervals. After controlling for the effects of gender and age range, job loss was found to be negatively associated with QoL, and hopelessness partially mediated such relationship. These relationships were in turn moderated by trait EI. Our study suggests that trait EI levels act as protective factor for a good QoL, mitigating the impact of both job loss and hopelessness over QoL levels during the COVID-19 pandemic. Identifying psychological protective and/or risk factors for a better QoL is crucial for the development of interventions aimed at reducing the emotional impact of the pandemic and of its negative real-life consequences