Measuring perceived emotional intelligence in adolescent population: Validation of the Short Trait Meta-Mood Scale (TMMS-23)1

Although emotional intelligence is related to psychological and social adjustment, currently there is not any tool that enables valid and reliable measurement of such construct in the Basque adolescent population. The TMMS-23 is a wellestablished assessment tool of perceived emotional intelligence in adolescence that measures people’s beliefs and attitudes about their own emotional experience. The aim of this instrumental study was to adapt the TMMS-23 to the Basque culture. We examined the psychometric properties of the Basque TMMS-23 in a sample of 1,038 participants (ages ranging between 13 and 19). The results of the CFA corroborated the three-factor structure of the original scale (Attention to feelings, Clarity of feelings, and Mood repair). Moreover, these dimensions showed adequate internal consistency and temporal stability and correlated among themselves in the expected direction. The study also showed some evidence of convergent validity and it provided external validation data based on differences in the TMMS-23 dimensions according to participants’ selfconcept, gender, and age.