Classroom emotional intelligence and its relationship with school performance

Despite the importance of emotions in classrooms, no measurements have been developed to assess group emotional intelligence (EI). The aim of this work was to develop a questionnaire for measuring group EI (G-TMMS) in educational contexts. The psychometric properties of G-TMMS were examined in a sample of 794 participants (47% female; mean age = 16; SD = 1.4), divided into 59 classrooms. The G-TMMS showed a one-factor structure. It also demonstrated to have adequate internal consistency, temporal stability, and convergent validity. Moreover, group EI was associated with higher group school performance. The implications of this new scale in educational contexts are discussed.

ResumenA pesar de la importancia nuclear de las emociones en el contexto académico no existen medidas de Inteligencia Emocional (IE) grupal aplicadas al aula. El objetivo del presente trabajo consistió en desarrollar un cuestionario para la medida de la IE grupal (G-TMMS) en contextos académicos. Las propiedades psicométricas del G-TMMS fueron examinadas en una muestra de 794 participantes dividida en 59 aulas (47% mujeres; Mediaedad = 16; DT = 1.4). El G-TMMS mostró una estructura unifactorial, una consistencia interna adecuada, estabilidad temporal y validez convergente. Además, la IE grupal del aula se mostró asociada con un mayor desempeño escolar grupal. El trabajo discute las implicaciones de esta nueva escala en el contexto educativo.