December 6, 2024

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Prosocial behaviours and emotional intelligence as factors associated with healthy lifestyles and violence in adolescents | BMC Psychology

Prosocial behaviours and emotional intelligence as factors associated with healthy lifestyles and violence in adolescents | BMC Psychology

Descriptive analyses and correlations

The results obtained about the correlations between the variables examined are shown in Table 1. These results indicate how all the dimensions of prosocial behaviour (empathy, respect, social relations and leadership) are significantly related to the dimensions of emotional intelligence (attention, clarity and repair) and to life satisfaction. On the other hand, in terms of the relationships between prosocial behaviour and healthy lifestyle, it was found that the empathy dimension correlates with healthy diet, respect for mealtimes and rest habits; the respect dimension correlates positively with healthy diet, respect for mealtimes, rest habits and physical activity, and negatively with smoking, alcohol and other drug use; finally, both the social relations and leadership dimensions correlate positively with healthy diet, respect for mealtimes, rest habits and physical activity.

Table 1 Descriptives and correlation matrix between prosocial behaviour, emotional intelligence, healthy lifestyle and life satisfaction (N = 743)

About the results of emotional intelligence, it should be noted that this variable is related to all the dimensions of prosocial behaviour (empathy, respect, social relations and leadership) as mentioned above. As for the associations between emotional intelligence and healthy lifestyle, it is noteworthy that there is no relationship between the emotional attention factor and any of the dimensions of healthy lifestyle. On the other hand, the emotional clarity factor is related to healthy diet, respect for mealtimes, rest habits and physical activity. Finally, the emotional repair factor is positively related to healthy diet, respect for mealtimes, rest habits and physical activity and negatively related to the use of other drugs. A relationship is associated between life satisfaction and the factors of emotional clarity and emotional repair.

Finally, the relationships found between healthy lifestyle and life satisfaction were significantly positive in all dimensions of healthy lifestyle (healthy diet, respect for mealtimes, rest habits and physical activity) except for the consumption dimensions (tobacco use, alcohol use and use of other drugs) which were negative.

Violence and consumption as risk factors

The data in Table 2 show how adolescents who do not bully their peers show higher levels of empathy and respect. Notably, those who are not victims have higher levels of social relationships. On the other hand, those who are observers of violence are more empathetic compared to non-observers who show greater respect.

Table 2 Differences between prosocial behaviours and roles of violence (girls n = 377; boys n = 366)

Table 3 shows that adolescents who do not use tobacco or alcohol show more respect in their social interactions than those who do.

Table 3 Differences between prosocial behaviour and substance use (girls n = 377; boys n = 366)

Table 4 provides data on the different dimensions of emotional intelligence (attention, clarity and repair) and the different roles of violence (bully, victim and observer). The results indicate that adolescents who do not engage in bullying situations have greater emotional repair than those who are bullies. On the other hand, observers of violence have a higher mean score in emotional attention, while non-observers score higher in emotional repair. No significant differences were found for victims of bullying.

Table 4 Differences between emotional intelligence and violence roles (girls n = 377; boys n = 366)

Referring to the differences obtained between emotional intelligence and alcohol and tobacco consumption (Table 5), it is worth noting that adolescents who do not consume either of these two substances have greater emotional repair than those who do consume.

Table 5 Differences between emotional intelligence and substance use (girls n = 377; boys n = 366)

Healthy habits and substance use: profiles and differences in prosocial behaviour and emotional intelligence

First, to identify profiles based on healthy habits, a two-stage cluster analysis is carried out with four entries (healthy diet, respecting mealtimes, rest habits, and physical activity), from which two groups or clusters are obtained (Fig. 1). In this case, as a measure of cluster quality, an average silhouette of 0.4 is obtained.

Fig. 1
figure 1

Composition of healthy behaviour clusters

The first cluster (HSc1), consisting of 68.4% of the cases (n = 508), is characterised by scores below the overall mean in the dimensions: healthy diet (M = 8.28), respecting mealtimes (M = 8.67), rest habits (M = 8.33), and physical activity (M = 15.32).

The second cluster (HSc2), with 31.6% of cases (n = 235), is defined by above sample mean scores on healthy diet (M = 11.56), respecting mealtimes (M = 12.58), resting habits (M = 11.90), and physical activity (M = 21.23).

Table 6 presents the descriptive data for both clusters and the results of the comparison of means between the profiles in prosocial behaviour and emotional intelligence. These results indicate that adolescents with high scores on healthy diet, respect for mealtimes, rest habits and physical activity (HSc2) have greater empathy, respect, social relationships, leadership, clarity and emotional repair.

Table 6 Prosocial behaviour and emotional intelligence. Descriptive data and t-test according to healthy habits profile

On the other hand, to identify profiles based on substance use habits, a two-stage cluster analysis is carried out with three entries referring to alcohol, tobacco and other drug use. By automatic grouping, two clusters are obtained (Fig. 2). In this case, as a measure of cluster quality, an average silhouette of 0.7 is obtained.

Fig. 2
figure 2

Composition of substance use clusters

The first cluster (HCc1), consisting of 78.1% of the cases (n = 580), is characterised by scores below the overall mean for alcohol (M = 6.58), tobacco (M = 3.33), and other drugs (M = 6.06).

The second cluster (HCc2), with 21.9% of cases (n = 163), is defined by above sample mean scores on alcohol (M = 14.30), tobacco (M = 8.21), and other drugs (M = 13.60).

Table 7 presents the descriptive data for both clusters and the results of the comparison of means between the profiles in prosocial behaviour and emotional intelligence. These results show that adolescents with a lower consumption of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs (HCc1) score higher on respect.

Table 7 Prosocial behaviour and emotional intelligence. Descriptive data and t-test according to substance use habits profile

Probability of a healthy lifestyle and substance use by age, gender, prosocial behaviour and emotional intelligence

A bilateral logistic regression analysis was carried out to determine the probability that adolescents lead a healthy lifestyle and that they consume substances such as alcohol, tobacco or other drugs according to different variables such as age, sex, prosocial behaviour and emotional intelligence.

Table 8 shows how gender, namely being male, respect, social relationships and emotional repair are more likely to lead a healthy lifestyle.

Table 8 Likelihood of having a healthy life according to the variables examined (Total sample; N = 743)

The probability of having a substance abuse habit (Table 9) is linked to the age of the adolescents, as well as to the empathy dimension in prosocial behaviour and emotional clarity in emotional intelligence.

Table 9 Likelihood of substance use according to the variables tested (Total sample; N = 743)