Psychometric Properties of the Profile of Emotional Competence

The present study aimed at examining the validity, reliability, and the factor structure of the Profile of Emotional Competence (PEC) among Iranian students. To this end, 518 high school female students were selected in the 2019 academic year using cluster sampling method, and they completed the Profile of Emotional Competence (Brasseur, Grégoire, Bourdu, & Mikolajczak, 2013), Cultural Competence Questionnaire (Central Vancouver Island Multicultural Society, 2007), and Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985). To investigate the validity, the confirmatory factor analysis, and the convergent validity were used. The findings of confirmatory factor analysis confirmed a two-factor structure of the questionnaire and yielded two factors named as intra emotional competence and inter emotional competence. The correlation coefficients of the questionnaire scores with life satisfaction and cultural competence were 0.30 and 0.52 respectively. These results showed the convergent validity of the scale. To assess the reliability of the questionnaire, Cronbach’s alpha was used. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was in satisfactory level for each factor (α = 0.78 for intra emotional competence, and α = 0.80 for inter emotional competence), and the total score of the scale (α = 0.92). The findings suggest that the profile of emotional competence is a reliable and valid instrument for assessing emotional competence for Iranian high school students and can be used as a suitable instrument in psychological research.