Development of an Emotional Intelligence Scale for Primary School Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the emotional intelligence status of primary school students in Beijing and develop a scientific assessment scale. First, through a systematic review of domestic and international literature on emotional intelligence, we propose a theoretical framework encompassing four dimensions: self-perception, self-regulation, external perception, and external regulation. Second, relevant scales are collected to serve as an important reference for developing questionnaire items, thereby enabling the creation of custom items based on the hypothesized structure and the finalization of the preliminary questionnaire. Third, we conducted item analysis and exploratory factor analysis using a sample of 355 elementary school students to develop a second questionnaire. In the fourth step, the reliability and validity of the retest questionnaire were assessed using a sample of 362 elementary school students, and 60 of them were selected to evaluate retest reliability one month later. The final version of the questionnaire consists of 40 items, covering four dimensions: self-perception, self-regulation, external perception, and external regulation. The overall Cronbach’s α coefficient for the questionnaire was 0.927, with Cronbach’s α coefficients for each dimension ranging from 0.768 to 0.905; The test-retest reliability was 0.542; the results of confirmatory factor analysis indicated that χ²/df = 2.28, GFI = 0.78, IFI = 0.94, NNFI = 0.94, CFI = 0.94, and RMSEA = 0.060, all of which met psychometric standards. This scale is divided into four dimensions, which not only address the issue of current emotional intelligence scales being too broad in scope but also better align with the characteristics of Chinese elementary school students, thereby facilitating the implementation of mental health education in schools.