engleski

On the emotional reasoning assessment: A validity evidence on the ability-based measures in different age groups

The paper presents a part of validation data gathered within the longitudinal study on the development of emotional intelligence (EI) and its correlates during early adolescence. The validity evidence will be demonstrated on the performance- based instruments designed to measure understanding and regulation of emotions, as generally recognized EI dimensions within ability- based EI models. Having in mind previous findings on relatively low discriminant validity of the instruments when administered on early adolescent samples, the present study focused on the age related differences in the latent relationships among the EI dimensions, as well as between EI and cognitive ability measures. Latent state-trait framework (LST ; Steyer at al., 1992, 2015) was applied to examine the structure of relationships among the specified EI and cognitive reasoning latent variables. The analyses are based on panel data collected in two time points, six months apart, with adolescent samples of primary school students. Multi-group structural equation analyses showed that the structure of observed relationships among the specified latent trait measures examined was contingent upon the cohorts or age of students. However, the results could not be interpreted in terms of differentiation of abilities hypothesis, at least when speaking of emotion understanding latent dimension. The results are discussed in view of EI conceptualizations and the aspects of methodology used in the study, including the eventual implications on convergent and discriminant validity indices.

emotional intelligence ; test development ; construct validity ; measurement invariance ; early adolescence

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