Development and Validation of the Implicit Theories of Emotional Intelligence Scale (ITEI) in the Academic Context

Literature has shown that incremental theorists have greater scholastic and professional results, higher wellbeing and more positive emotional experiences. Nonetheless, measurement in the implicit theories of emotional-related domains is still scarce. Therefore, this paper examined the properties of a newly developed implicit theories of emotional intelligence scale (ITEI) among a sample of 612 adolescents. The exploratory factor analysis evidenced the scale's two-factor structure - incremental and entity - with 54.2% of total explained variance. Confirmatory factor analysis established the bifactorial model, and ITEI presented invariant measurement across gender. Cronbach's alpha and half-split coefficients were above .90. ITEI presented discriminant validity with related measures, such as the implicit theories of intelligence and emotions towards school. Globally, the results suggest that ITEI is a psychometrically sound measure to assess implicit theories of emotional intelligence.