The validity of the TMMS-24 emotional intelligence scale in a context of music-oriented secondary school students in Italy

Abstract

The present study aimed to determine the emotional characteristics of the Trait-Meta-Mood-Scale (TMMS-24) in music-oriented secondary school students in Italy. A 24-item self-assessment protocol was applied to measure the level of perceived emotional intelligence according to 3 dimensions: attention, clarity and repair. This tool represents one of the most widely used self-assessment measures of perceived emotional intelligence. The objective of the study was to conduct construct validation to examine reliability of the Italian version of the TMMS-24 in order to identify its feasibility for the assessment of emotional intelligence. Exploratory and confirmatory factorial analyses were conducted on a sample of music-oriented secondary school students in Italy (n=402). Exploratory factor analysis outcomes revealed that the three dimensions of the original scale (attention, clarity and emotional repair) are supported in the examined context, showing adequate internal consistency and describing 52.6% of overall variance. Outcomes were confirmed via confirmatory analysis, obtaining good fit indices (CFI=0.986; TLI=0.985; RMSEA=0.038). The TMMS-24 scale is a valid and reliable instrument for measuring the emotional intelligence of secondary school students in Italy. Keywords: TMMS-24, emotional intelligence, secondary school education, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis.