Design and validation of the Internet Emotional Intelligence Scale (IEIS) for adolescents

Emotional intelligence is a widely studied construct, but there are very few works that have related it to online contexts. Nowadays it is argued whether a different emotional process exists for situations in which there is physical contact or virtual interaction. The aim of this study was to design and validate the Internet Emotional Intelligence Scale (IEIS). The IEIS is based on the Trait Meta-Mood Scale-24 (TMMS-24), which is composed of three dimensions: attention, clarity, and online emotional repair. A sample of 535 adolescents (50.3% boys and 49.7% girls, with an average age of 15.00±1.67) completed the IEIS, the TMMS-24 and a measure of peer-harassment. The confirmatory factorial analysis done through a maximum likelihood robust method reflects a good fit model. There is high reliability for the total of the scale (a= .89), and the values for the alpha Cronbach for the dimensions are in between .75 and .89. The stability of the measurement has been calculated through a test-retest (r= .77). Convergence indicators have been obtained with the TMMS-24, and the Screening of Peer-Harassment (technological scale).