The Internal Structure of Responses to the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire-Short Form: An Exploratory...

Notwithstanding the wide use of the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire-Short Form (TEIQue-SF) as a brief assessment of trait emotional intelligence (TEI), the psychometric properties of this measure have not been systematically examined. This article reports on research conducted to evaluate the latent structure underlying TEIQue-SF item data and test the gender invariance of scores as critical initial steps in determining the psychometric robustness of the inventory. In doing so, the article demonstrates an application of exploratory structural equation modeling as an alternative to the more restrictive independent clusters model of confirmatory factor analysis for examining factorially complex personality data. On the basis of 476 responses to the TEIQue-SF, evidence was obtained for the multidimensionality of the inventory reflected in a retained correlated traits solution. Tests of gender invariance revealed equivalence of item factor loadings, intercepts, uniquenesses, correlated uniquenesses, and the factor variance-covariance matrix, but not latent means. Men were found to be moderately higher on self-control and sociability than women, whereas women scored marginally higher on emotionality than men. No significant gender differences were found on mean levels of well-being. The benefits of the multidimensionality of the TEIQue-SF, limitations of the study, and directions for future research are discussed.