Measurement invariance of the Wong and Law emotional intelligence scale scores : does the measurement structure hold across far Eastern and European countries?

• Main Authors: Libbrecht, Nele, Beuckelaer, Alain De, Lievens, Filip, Rockstuhl, Thomas
• Other Authors: Nanyang Business School
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/99049; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/12546
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

In recent years, emotional intelligence and emotional intelligence measures have been used in a plethora of countries and cultures. This is also the case for the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS), highlighting the importance of examining whether the WLEIS is invariant across regions other than the Far Eastern region (China) where it was originally developed. This study investigated the measurement invariance (MI) of the WLEIS scores across two countries, namely Singapore (N= 505) and Belgium (N= 339). Apart from items measuring the factor “use of emotion”, the measurement structure underlying the WLEIS ratings was generally invariant across both countries as there was no departure from MI in terms of factor form and factor loadings. The scalar invariance model (imposing an identical threshold structure) was partially supported. Factor intercorrelations (not involving the factor “use of emotion”) were also identical across countries. These results show promise for the invariance of the WLEIS scores across different countries, yet warn of the non-invariance of the dimension “use of emotion”. Reducing the motivation-oriented nature of these items is in order to come to an exact model fit in cross-cultural comparisons.