Relations Between Social and Emotional Competence and Mental Health: a Construct Validation Study

The authors evaluated which, if any, social & emotional competence (SEC) variables predicted unique variance in social & mental health after controlling for other SEC variables in the study & the impact of stressful events (SEs) amongst 331 university students. They also assessed a variety of aspects of social & mental health, including depression & suicidal ideation. Analyses revealed that all SEC measures except minimising emotions had significant incremental value over the other measures & over SEs in predicting social & mental health. (52 refs)