Psychometrical Properties of the Romanian Version of the Schutte Emotional Intelligence Scale

Abstract

The current study focuses on the investigation of the psychometric properties of the Schutte Emotional Intelligence Scale (SEIS Schutte et al., 1998) as a first attempt in validating the instrument within Romania. The subjects of the study were 344 first to sixth year dental students at the School of Dental Medicine, University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Carol Davila”. Principal components extraction with varimax rotation was applied to the analysis of each factor model. The confirmatory factor analysis with maximum likelihood estimation to test the fit of the one factor model to the data explained 100 per cent of the total variance. The internal consistency for the scale was high (α =0.85). In terms of factor loadings, except for items 31, 32 and 32, all items had loadings higher than 0.40. The scree plot of eigen values for these factors that suggested a one-factor solution and supported Schutte et al.’s (1998) model. No differences were observed between students according to gender or between different years of study (P>0.05) regarding the total EI score. The PSS-10 scores were correlated with the total EI score (r = -0.163, P = 0.002). Exploratory factor analysis indicated the possibility of a ten-factor model, the test of global fit revealed a non-significant fit and the scree test suggested a one-factor model.