Impact of emotional development intervention program on subjective well-being of university students

The present study aims to determine the effects of an intervention program based on Mayer and Salovey’s (1997) model of emotional intelligence. A total of 250 university students participated in this study (mean = 21.89; standard deviation = 2.60; 75.20% women), who were randomized to experimental group (number of subjects = 63) and control group (number of subjects = 187). The emotional education program comprised seven 2-h sessions during 2 months. Participants completed the trait meta-mood scale, basic empathy scale, satisfaction with life scale, scale of positive and negative experience, mood questionnaire, and depression anxiety and stress scale. Results showed that the intervention program significantly increased emotional intelligence, empathy, and positive mood, as well as subjective well-being at post-intervention. These changes disappeared at follow-up. No significant moderators were found, neither demographic variables nor initial levels of emotional symptoms. Implementing intervention programs at universities for developing student’s emotional competence might be beneficial for their subjective well-being and mental health.