Authors' reply to the commentary by Chen (2026)

We respond to Chen's commentary on our recent article, "Personality and emotional intelligence among health professions students: the roles of perceived group cohesion, perceived team emotional intelligence, and attitudes toward interprofessional education." We address methodological and interpretive questions concerning covariate coding, variable centering, the Group Cohesion (GC) × Attitudes Toward Interprofessional Education (ATIPE) interaction, and the perceived team emotional intelligence (TEI)-only indirect pathway. Sensitivity analyses supported the main findings of the original article, including the serial mediation effects, the negative GC × ATIPE interaction, and the moderated mediation effects. We further clarify that the interaction reflects attenuation rather than amplification, and that the TEI-only pathway attenuated after attitudes toward interprofessional education were included as a predictor. Overall, this reply reinforces the robustness of the original findings while refining their interpretation.