Measuring Spanish students’ perception of teachers’ emotionally intelligent behavior: Relationships to academic and individual outcomes

The aim of the present investigation was to analyze the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Teacher Emotionally Intelligent Behavior Scale (TEIBS-S) in two independent studies with secondary students. In Study 1, a cross-sectional design was used and 1850 secondary students (52.3% girls; M_age = 14.2 years) completed the TEIBS-S and other self-report measures of theoretically relevant constructs, including life satisfaction, negative emotional states, the quality of teacher-student relationships, and support in the classroom. In Study 2, a prospective design was used in which 409 secondary school students (60% girls; M_age = 13.4 years) completed the TEIBS-S at time 1 and different self-report measures of academic engagement, satisfaction with life, positive and negative emotional states, anxiety and depression symptomatology, and somatic symptoms over on average five-month prospective interval. The results revealed preliminary evidence of adequate internal consistency. Also, the factor analyses supported a one–factor solution as original English version and was invariant across gender and expected significant relationships with the well-being and academic variables analyzed. Finally, Study 2 indicated that the TEIBS-S was positively related to academic engagement dimensions, positive affect and life satisfaction and negatively linked to somatic symptoms five months later. Our findings provide preliminary evidence that the TEIBS-S is a useful and valid instrument to assess teacher emotional intelligence-related behaviors that are linked to students’ affective and academic outcomes. Finally, practical recommendations and future lines of research using the TEIBS-S in school context are suggested.