Abstract

Introduction: Emotional intelligence (EI) has been assessed by multiple questionnaires; one of the most commonly used is the Schutte EI Scale (Schutte et al., 1998). The aim of this study was to explore the validation of the English SSEIT in Arabic language and assess its psychometric properties. Methods: This study was conducted about a sample of 350 students. The Transcultural validation of the Arabic version of SSEIT was carried out according to the methodology of Vallerand, (1989). Results: The present study showed a high Cronbach alpha of 0.908 of the Arabic version of the SSEIT. Correlations between the four subscales of the SSEIT, scores ranked from 0.626 to 0.868 with a very significant level (p=0.000) indicating a good internal consistency and homogeneity of the construct. The exploratory factor analysis demonstrated that the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure verified the sampling adequacy for the analysis (KMO = 0.876) and the Bartlett’s test of sphericity was of 7986.4 with p=0.000.The confirmatory factor analysis, performed by AMOS version 23.0.0, showed a X2/df of 7.35 ; CFI and RMSEA indices were of respectively of 0.7 and 0.08. Conclusion: The psychometric properties of the Arabic version of the SSEIT showed acceptable indices. 

Keywords: Emotional intelligence; Schutte Self-Report; Psychometric properties; Arabic version