The moderating effect of trait meta-mood and perceived stress on life satisfaction

The current study examined the moderating effect of meta-mood skills, and perceived stress on life satisfaction after controlling for dispositional optimism. Three-hundred and nine undergraduate students were asked to complete the trait meta-mood scale (TMMS), the perceived stress scale (PSS), the revised life orientation test (LOT-R), and the satisfaction with life scale (SWLS). Results revealed a positive correlation between dispositional optimism and life satisfaction. Also scores on the meta-mood skills were significantly related in the expected direction to scores on perceived stress and life satisfaction and showed additive value in predicting these constructs even after controlling for optimism and stress. Moreover, findings from hierarchical regression analyses indicated an interactive effect of mood clarity and stress in predicting life satisfaction after controlling for confounding effects. When students reported a high level of perceived stress, those with high mood clarity reported higher scores in life satisfaction than those with low mood clarity. However, there were no differences in life satisfaction between high and low clarity groups when perceived stress was low. Implications of these findings for future research on perceived emotional intelligence construct and for working with distressed people are discussed. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.