Validation of the Bar-On EQ-i: YV (S) Inventory in Its Spanish Version: Gender-Based Invariance Analysis

The purpose of this work is to verify the factorial structure and analyze the reliability of the Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i): Youth Version (YV) (S) by evaluating emotional intelligence in a more extensive sample of Spanish adolescents than has been used to date, since this inventory has been employed in various studies but with a very limited number of participants. For this study, 5292 adolescents from all over Spain participated—male (51.2%) and female (48.8%) secondary education students between 11 and 19 years old, with an average age of 14.33. Data analysis included a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), reliability analysis, and model invariance as a function of gender. The CFA confirms that the data empirically support the theoretical model and that the goodness-of-fit indexes are adequate. The reliability analysis of the inventory presents a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the total scale of 0.76, and reliability indexes for each of the factors range between 0.63 and 0.80. The findings show that the model indicates invariance related to gender.