The development of an adolescent measure of EI

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the reliability and validity of a modified adolescent version of the Swinburne University Emotional Intelligence Test (Adolescent SUEIT). Study 1 identified qualitative changes and rewording of items necessary to make the SUEIT more ‘adolescent friendly’. In Study 2 the adolescent modified version of the SUEIT was administered to a larger sample of adolescents ( N = 1002) to gather information on internal reliability, and to perform validity testing via exploratory factor analysis. The sub-scale reliability of the Adolescent SUEIT was found to be moderate to high, and a four-factor model was most representative of the adolescent sample. It was also noted that the more basic emotional intelligence (EI) abilities were positively related to age; females reported higher levels of emotional perception; and mean scores for the adolescent sample were below the norm for an adult population. With the amount of EI research with adolescents increasing, it is important to have valid and reliable tests available for research into important social and educational outcomes for adolescents. This initial evidence suggests the Adolescent SUEIT is a reliable and valid tool, and should be used to further understand the role of EI in adolescence, and how EI relates to important life criteria.