The Measurement of Perceived Emotional Intelligence for Spanish Adolescents with Social Anxiety Disorder Symptoms

Abstract

Emotional Intelligence (EI) is a concept that has been discussed for decades in Psychology but has received very little empirical study until recently. And with this growing interest, its accompanying concept, Perceived Emotional Intelligence (PEI), has also received more attention. It is due to this growing interest in PEI that this paper explores two important aspects of the PEI: the measurement of PEI and the implications PEI may have for adolescent anxiety disorder symptomology. This study explores a well-known questionnaire of PEI, namely the Trait Meta-Mood Scale questionnaire (TMMS). The Spanish shortened version of the Trait Meta-Mood Scale questionnaire (TMMS-24) and a series of well-known questionnaires of Social Anxiety Disorder symptomology were administrated to 425 Spanish high-school adolescents. The results of this study corroborated that the TMMS-24 has good psychometric properties in adolescents, and that one of its three scales (Emotional Repair) appears to be involved in adolescent SAD symptomology.