Design, construction and validation of the emotional skills questionnaire for school children (QESSC) Pilot test

Abstract

Introduction: emotional skills are associated with feelings and/or perception of the elements and

relationships of reality or imagination, which is expressed through physiological reactions such as

changes in breathing, sweating, increased heart rate, and includes some behavioral reactions such as

relaxation, well-being, anxiety, depression, aggressiveness or crying. Objective: design, development

and validation of a questionnaire to assess emotional skills, such as: emotion recognition, behavioral

and cognitive self-regulation of emotions, interpersonal relationships and interpersonal sensitivity;

for schoolchildren attending official schools in the Iztacalco Delegation of Mexico City. Material and

methods: this is a descriptive-cross-sectional research study, in the construction and validation of

the questionnaire a test-validation design has been used, according to which the instrument has been

applied, in the pilot study to 150 schoolchildren and has been submitted to expert judgment, to be

applied to a sample of students representative of the population aged 7 to 12 years. The questionnaire

(QESSC) consists of 40 items organized into four factors: 1. Recognition of emotions, 2. Behavioral

and cognitive regulation of emotions, 3. Interpersonal relationships, and 4. interpersonal sensitivity.

Results: in order to validate the questionnaire, it was applied to a sample of 150 subjects. The sample

had a mean and standard deviation of 9.1 ± 1.6 (SD). Construct, criterion, appearance and content

validation was performed. Cronbach’s alpha of the total scale was 0.82 with a variance explanation

of 72.5%. Factor 1: recognition of emotions (10 items, α = 0.82), factor 2: behavioral and cognitive

self-regulation of emotions (10 items, α = 0.81), factor 3: interpersonal relationships (10 items, α =

0.85), factor 4: interpersonal sensitivity (10 items, α = 0.87). The Mesquite questionnaire was used

as a gold standard and correlations were observed between emotion recognition and moderate

emotional intelligence (7-15) (r = 0.753) p < 0.01) behavioral and cognitive self-regulation of emotions

and high emotional intelligence (15-25) (r = 0.751) (p < 0.01). Interpersonal sensitivity and moderate

interpersonal intelligence (7-15) (r = 0.791 p < 0.01) test-retest correlations on the total scale items

ranged from r = 0.76 to r = 0.82. Conclusion: CHENE is a questionnaire that allows the assessment

of emotional skills in school-age children. The validity and reliability of the CHENE were established.

The goodness of this questionnaire is supported by the empirical data achieved both in reliability and

validity. According to the statistical analysis, it is observed that in general the CHENE questionnaire

has a good correlation between the different fields proposed. In relation to the Mesquite questionnaire

(gold standard) it presents a positive and significant correlation.