Little is known about what factors protect against the occurrence of suicidal ideation and attempts. We tested whether emotional intelligence (EI)—the ability to perceive, integrate into thoughts, understand, and manage one’s emotions—decreases the likelihood of suicidal ideation and attempts among those at risk.

Adolescents (N = 54) aged 12 to 19 years were recruited from local psychiatric clinics and the community to participate in this cross-sectional laboratory-based study. Analyses examined whether the relations between childhood sexual abuse and suicidal ideation and attempts were moderated by adolescents’ EI. These constructs were assessed using self-report, structured interviews, and performance-based tests, respectively.

Analyses revealed that El is a protective factor for both suicidal ideation and attempts. Specifically, childhood sexual abuse was strongly predictive of these outcomes among those with low El, weakly predictive among those with medium El, and completely unrelated among those with high El. Follow-up analyses revealed that the protective effect of El was driven primarily by differences in strategic El (i.e., ability to understand and manage emotions) but not experiential El (i.e., ability to perceive emotions and integrate emotions into thoughts).

This study provides preliminary evidence that El is a protective factor for suicidal ideation and attempts. Important next steps include testing the moderating influence of El on a wider range of stressful life events and self-injurious behaviors, as well as conducting experimental studies to determine whether enhancing El decreases the subsequent occurrence of these behavior problems.