Perceived emotional intelligence as predictor of psychological adjustment in adolescents: a 1-year prospective study José M. Salguero & Raquel Palomera & Pablo Fernández-Berrocal Received: 7 October 2010 / Revised: 21 March 2011 /Accepted: 18 April 2011 / Published online: 4 May 2011 # Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada, Lisboa, Portugal and Springer Science+Business Media BV 2011 Abstract In recent years, emotional intelligence has appeared as a predictor of adults’ mental health, but little research has examined its involvement in adolescents’ psycholog- ical adjustment. In this paper, we analyzed the predictive validity of perceived emotional intelligence (attention to feelings, emotional clarity, and emotional repair) over psycholog- ical adjustment in an adolescent sample at two temporal stages with a 1-year interval. At Time 1, the results indicated that adolescents with high scores in attention to feelings and low scores in emotional clarity and repair display poorer psychological adjustment, concretely, higher levels of anxiety, depression, and social stress and lower levels of general mental health. At Time 2, attention to feelings and emotional repair significantly predicted adolescents’ psychological well-being, even when the effects of previous psychological adjustment were controlled for. The findings suggest that perceived emotional intelligence is a stable predictor of adolescent adjustment and may serve as a useful resource for preventive interventions. Keywords Trait meta-mood . Adolescence . Psychological adjustment . Emotional intelligence . Prospective study Introduction An overview of Child Well-being in Rich Countries (UNICEF 2007) acknowledged severe problems of deprivation and psychological maladjustment among children and teenagers Eur J Psychol Educ (2012) 27:21–34 DOI 10.1007/s10212-011-0063-8 J. M. Salguero (*) Department of Personality, Evaluation and Psychological Treatment, Psychology Faculty, University of Malaga, Campus de Teatinos s/n. Málaga, 29071 Málaga, Spain e-mail: jmsalguero@uma.es R. Palomera Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, University of Cantabria, Cantabria, Spain P. Fernández-Berrocal Department of Basic Psychology, University of Malaga, Malaga, Spain