Measuring emotional intelligence in adolescents

Can emotional intelligence (EI) be reliably and validly measured in adolescents? One-hundred and thirty-one students (aged 13 to 15) completed a self-report measure of emotional intelligence (SEI) [Schutte, N., Malouff, J., Hall, L., Haggerty, D., Cooper, J., Golden, C., & Dornheim, L. (1998). Development and validation of a measure of emotional intelligence. Personality and Individual Differences, 25, 167–177.] and a number of other, theoretically relevant measures. They were then induced into either a positive, negative, or neutral mood and asked to complete a task that assessed mood management behaviour. We found that EI was reliably measured in adolescents, was higher for females than males, and was positively associated with skill at identifying emotional expressions, amount of social support, extent of satisfaction with social support, and mood management behaviour. These relationships held even after controlling for two constructs that potentially overlap with EI, namely self-esteem and trait anxiety. This study offers evidence that the SEI is a distinctive and useful measure.