Relationship between emotional intelligence and psychological capital with life satisfaction in elderly

Introduction: The world's population is rapidly rising to aging, and in the meantime, factors such as emotional intelligence and psychological capital are linked to life satisfaction in old age; the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between emotional intelligence and psychological capital with life satisfaction of elderly people in Mahabad. Method: The present research is a descriptive and correlational study. The community consisted of all 65 year olds above the city of Mahabad, which were 10800 people. 412 people were selected as the final sample by available sampling method. The instruments for collecting information were the psychological capital questionnaire (Luthans, 2007), emotional intelligence (Bradberry, Greaves, 2006) and life satisfaction (Diener, 1985). The data were analyzed by Pearson correlation coefficient and Inter regression, using SPSS version 23 software. Results: The results showed that all components of emotional intelligence (including selfawareness, self-management, and social awareness and relationship management) have a positive correlation with life satisfaction (p < 0.01). There is a positive correlation between the components of psychological capital (self-efficacy, hope, resilient, optimism) with life satisfaction (p = 0.01). Also, the results of regression analysis showed that emotional intelligence and psychological capital can predict life satisfaction and 35.1% of life satisfaction variance is explained by these variables. Conclusion: Emotional intelligence and psychological capital can be learned and acquired throughout life; therefore, by teaching these two variables, life satisfaction can be increased in old