Cross-cultural and gender measurement invariance of the intrapersonal and interpersonal emotional competence questionnaire

Abstract

The Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Emotional Competence Questionnaire (IIECQ) was developed from the Emotional Skills and Competence Questionnaire, addressing some of its content issues. Measurement invariance of the two-factor IIECQ model (interpersonal and intrapersonal emotional competence factors) was examined across countries and gender groups using a sample of 998 students from five different countries (Slovenia, Russia, Croatia, India, and the Czech Republic). Our results supported partial scalar invariance of the IIECQ across countries with three items having varying intercepts in different countries. Scalar invariance was fully confirmed across gender groups. Latent means for the two IIECQ factors were compared between the five countries and the two gender groups. While men and women reported similar levels of intrapersonal and interpersonal emotional competences, significant differences were observed between some of the countries. To assess the construct validity of the IIECQ, correlations were examined between the IIECQ subscale scores and the measures of emotion regulation, personality, and well-being. In general, correlations were low to moderate and in accordance with expectations, showing adequate convergent validity of the new scales. Overall, the IIECQ represents a psychometrically sound measure of the intrapersonal and interpersonal emotional competences, which are measured in the same way across the five countries examined as well as across genders