Development and validation of the Strategic Test of Emotional Intelligence (STEI) in the Spanish population

Introduction and objectives

Currently, the assessment of emotional intelligence (EI) ability using performance measures is somewhat 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.