Author Name: – Sanaya Kashalkar and K.Jayasankara Reddy Date:- 29 September 2026
The purpose of this research was to investigate whether Emotional Intelligence acts as a mediator between Cognitive Flexibility and Cognitive Resilience in young and middle-aged adults. It was a quantitative study with a cross-sectional mediational analysis design. The research considered emotional intelligence as a whole and also its subcomponents as identified by Daniel Goleman. These include self-motivation, self-awareness, emotional regulation, social motivation, social skills and emotional receptivity. Thus, the study examined seven mediations in all. The sample size was 78, with 38 young adults (aged 18-25) and 40 middle-aged adults (aged 40-55). The methodology involved the online circulation of three questionnaires, one for each of the variables. The collected data was subjected to mediational analysis. Contrary to the hypothesis, emotional intelligence was found to have a significant mediating effect between cognitive flexibility and cognitive resilience in young adults but not in middle-aged adults. Additionally, emotional regulation and self-motivation were also found to be significant mediators in young adults. On the contrary, neither emotional intelligence nor its subcomponents had a significant mediating effect in the case of middle-aged adults. Future research can focus on other probable mediators between cognitive flexibility and cognitive resilience.
