You Feel Better when Your Partner is Emotionally Intelligent: Self-Rated Emotional Intelligence Shows Partner Effects on Subjective Wellbeing

Emotionally intelligent people tend to have higher wellbeing. It is possible that their high emotional intelligence (EI) also affects the wellbeing of the people they interact with. This is particularly true in romantic relationships, where a person’s EI may play an important role in their partner’s emotional experiences. The current study (N = 407 romantic dyads) uses actor-partner interdependence models to examine the associations between EI (ability and self-rated) and wellbeing (psychological wellbeing, life satisfaction, affect). Self-rated EI showed consistent actor effects on all wellbeing variables with relatively large effects. Actor effects for ability EI were much smaller and inconsistent for men versus women. Partner effects were largely significant for self-rated, but not ability EI. The results suggest that romantic partners’ self-rated EI impacts some aspects of wellbeing. Findings are discussed in terms of the distinction between emotional abilities (ability EI) and self-beliefs (self-rated EI), including implications for couples counselling.