Development and validation of the Strategic Test of Emotional Intelligence (STEI) in the Spanish population / Desarrollo y validación del Test Estratégico de Inteligencia Emocional (STEI) en población española

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Currently, the assessment of emotional intelligence (EI) ability using performance measures is some what limited. Our study thus describes the development and validation of a new performance measure, known as the Strategic Test of Emotional Intelligence (STEI), to assess EI abilities in Spanish samples based on the Mayer and Salovey (1997) model and Situational Judgment Test paradigm. MATERIALS AND METHOD: Spanish undergraduate students and community participants (N = 504; 64.7% females aged 18-67 years) completed the STEI (consisting of 110 items, 55 of which correspond to the understanding emotions factor and 55 to the managing emotions factor). Different subgroups also completed measures of EI, empathy, personality, and general intelligence. RESULTS: The findings indicate appropriate reliability and convergent and discriminant validity with respect to EI, empathy, personality, and intelligence measures. Further, confirmatory factor analysis supported the existence of a two-factor structure composed of the understanding and managing emotions subscales. Cronbach's alpha coefficients were adequate (.82 understanding emotions, .85 managing emotions, and .90 total STEI). CONCLUSIONS: The STEI could be a promising new measure for assessing EI in Spanish samples, providing a novel tool for researching the construct and enabling the comparison with previous results found in other cultures

INTRODUCCIÓN Y OBJETIVOS: En la actualidad, la evaluación de la capacidad de inteligencia emocional (IE) que utiliza medidas de rendimiento es algo limitada. Nuestro estudio describe el desarrollo y la validación de una nueva medida de rendimiento, conocida como Test Estratégico de Inteligencia Emocional (STEI), para evaluar las habilidades de IE en muestras españolas basada en el modelo de Mayer y Salovey (1997) y en el paradigma de Prueba de Juicio Situacional. MATERIALES Y MÉTODO: ESTUDIANTES universitarios, así como muestra de población general (n = 504; 64.7% mujeres; rango de edad de 18 a 67 años) de España completaron el STEI (con un total de 110 ítems, 55 pertenecientes al factor comprensión y 55 al factor manejo de las emociones). Diferentes subgrupos también completaron medidas de IE, empatía, personalidad e inteligencia general. RESULTADOS: Los resultados indican una fiabilidad apropiada y una validez convergente y discriminante con respecto a las medidas de IE, empatía, personalidad e inteligencia. Además, el análisis factorial confirmatorio apoyó la existencia de una estructura de dos factores compuesta por las subescalas de comprensión y manejo de las emociones. Los coeficientes alfa de Cronbach fueron adecuados (.82 comprensión emociones, .85 manejo emociones y .90 STEI total). CONCLUSIONES: El STEI podría ser una medida nueva y prometedora para evaluar la IE en muestras españolas, proporcionando una herramienta novedosa para investigar el constructo y poder comparar los resultados con los encontrados previamente en otras culturas

Short- and midterm effects of emotional intelligence training on adolescent mental health.

PURPOSE: To analyze the effects that an emotional intelligence (EI) educational program based on the EI ability model had on adolescent mental health immediately and 6 months after completion of the training. METHODS: A pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design with a treatment and a control group was used; 479 Spanish adolescents (47.4% male, mean age of 13 years) were involved in the study. Adolescents were recruited through several schools in three Spanish cities. The 2-year training program involved 24 sessions lasting 1 hour each, conducted `weekly during 6 months of 2009 and 2010. Data on psychological adjustment, mental health, and negative affect were collected at baseline, at the end of the training program, and 6 months later. Data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance. RESULTS: Students who participated in the EI educational program reported fewer clinical symptoms compared with students in the control group, and these differences persisted 6 months after the conclusion of the program. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that EI programs created to develop skills in perceiving, facilitating, understanding, and managing emotions can be effective at promoting mental health in adolescents.

Emotional regulation and acute pain perception in women.

UNLABELLED: Emotional regulation is an important variable in the experience of pain. Currently, there are no experimental investigations of the relation between emotional regulation and pain. The goal of the present study work was to analyze differences in pain perception and mood generated by the cold-pressor (CPT) experimental paradigm in women with high and low emotional regulation. Two groups of women were formed as a function of their level of emotional regulation: women with high emotional repair (N = 24) and women with low emotional repair (N = 28), all of whom performed the CPT. The results show that the women with a high score in emotional repair reported having experienced less sensory pain and affective pain during the immersion, as well as a more positive affective state before beginning the task. During the experimental task, they also reported a better mood, thus displaying lower impact of the experience of pain. PERSPECTIVE: Emotional regulation is proposed as a key element to manage the emotional reaction that accompanies the experience of acute pain experimentally induced by the CPT experimental paradigm in a sample of healthy women.