The Relationship of Botín Foundation's Emotional Intelligence Test (TIEFBA) with Personal and Scholar Adjustment of Spanish Adolescents

Abstract

This study analyzes the relationship of Botín Foundation's Emotional Intelligence Test for Adolescents (TIEFBA), a new ability-based measure to assess emotional intelligence (EI), with personal and scholar adjustment in Spanish adolescents. The instrument, based on the Mayer and Salovey model (1997), measures four branches of abilities while the participant is executing emotional tasks triggered by an emotion-eliciting situation. The TIEFBA was developed according to the Situational Judgment Test paradigm and it comprises eight scenes designed to evoke positive and negative emotions. A total of 1684 Spanish adolescents (48.2% males, mean age 14.37) completed the TIEFBA. Data on personality, empathy, intelligence and psychosocial adjustment were collected. The results provide evidence of instrument reliability and factorial, convergent, discriminant and some predictive validity. They further suggest that the TIEFBA is a promising new measure for assessing EI in Spanish adolescents, which will allow researchers and educators to understand better how EI affects youth as well as assess the impact of EI interventions.