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. 2025 Feb;34(2):377-383.
doi: 10.1007/s11136-024-03833-7. Epub 2024 Nov 20.

Is intrapersonal emotional competence a personal resource for the quality of life of informal caregivers of cancer patients unlike interpersonal emotional competence?

Anne-Sophie Baudry  1   2   3 , Marion Delpuech  4 , Emilie Charton  4   5 , Charlotte Peugniez  6 , Benedicte Hivert  7 , Aurelien Carnot  8 , Tatiana Ceban  9 , Sophie Dominguez  7 , Antoine Lemaire  6 , Capucine Aelbrecht-Meurisse  10 , Amelie Anota  4   5   11 , Veronique Christophe  12   4   13
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Is intrapersonal emotional competence a personal resource for the quality of life of informal caregivers of cancer patients unlike interpersonal emotional competence?

Anne-Sophie Baudry et al. Qual Life Res. 2025 Feb.

Abstract

Introduction: This study assessed the influence of intrapersonal (one's own emotions) and interpersonal (emotions of others) emotional competence (EC) of informal caregivers on their quality of life (QoL) at the beginning of cancer care.

Methods: Participants completed two questionnaires assessing their intrapersonal and interpersonal EC (S-PEC) as well as their QoL (SF-36) at the beginning of treatments. Multivariate ANCOVA regression analyses were then performed to explore the influence of EC on QoL.

Results: The questionnaires were completed by 203 caregivers. As expected, intrapersonal EC was associated with a better QoL in all sub-dimensions (p < 0.01). More surprisingly, interpersonal EC was associated with worse QoL in terms of physical role (- 8.97 [95% CI - 16.74; - 1.19]), emotional role (- 8.37 [95% CI - 16.27; - 0.48]), and general health (- 4.50 [95% CI - 8.08; - 0.92]).

Conclusion: Intrapersonal EC should be improved for better QoL of caregivers of cancer patients. However, the more caregivers are attentive to the emotions of others (e.g., by identifying, understanding, listening and helping to manage emotions), the more their physical and psychological state has an impact on their daily life and their perceived health is impaired.

Keywords: Cancer; Caregivers; Emotional competence; Emotional intelligence; Quality of life.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Conflict of interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest. Ethical approval: The study complies with authorizations from the University Ethics Committee (2018-268-S59). Consent to participate: Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. Consent to publish: The manuscript does not contain any individual person’s data in any form (including any individual details, images or videos).

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