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Individual differences linked to emotional dispositions at the trait level have been referred to as trait emotional intelligence (EI) or emotional competences (EC). EI/EC refer to the self-perception of emotional abilities at a trait level, that is to say, the typical performance of people in terms of identifying, expressing, understanding, regulating, and using emotions, for themselves and for others, in order to adapt to their environment (Brasseur et al., 2013; Petrides et al., 2016; Scherer, 2007). The field of EI and EC at the trait level has applications in the areas of clinical, health, social, educational, organizational, and developmental psychology (Petrides et al., 2016; Sarrionandia & Mikolajczak, 2020). Specifically regarding addiction, higher EI was found to be a protective factor against smoking (Kun & Demetrovics, 2010; Torres et al., 2020), alcohol use, and illicit drug use (Kun & Demetrovics, 2010). Furthermore, technological addictions are of recent interest (Gugliandolo et al., 2019), and EI has been found to be a protective factor against problematic internet behaviour (Arrivillaga et al., 2020; Hsieh et al., 2018; Sechi et al., 2020; Wang & Zhang, 2020), and smartphone use (Arrivillaga et al., 2020; Busch & McCarthy, 2021; Mascia et al., 2020). Finally, EI and EC may not only act as protective factors against addiction behaviours, but may also represent an important adjuvant for counsellors providing support for people with addiction, given addiction counsellors with higher EI have been found to display higher cultural empathy (Smith et al., 2020). Taken together, these findings showcase the societal relevance of EI and EC to better understand addiction.
Concerning terminology, EI has been mostly used since the concept was defined by Salovey and Mayer (1990). However, researchers have called for a terminology shift towards EC (Brasseur et al., 2013; Scherer, 2007). Specifically, there is growing evidence that unlike intelligence, EC can be taught and improved (Brasseur et al., 2013; Hodzic et al., 2017). However, the question of EC and EI measurement remains critical (Laborde & Allen, 2016), and there is a continuous need for measurement evaluation, given the fast-paced theoretical advancements in this area (Mikolajczak, 2010), and because of the regular development of new scales (e.g., Pekaar et al., 2018). Therefore, the aim of this study is to analyse the convergent validity of two...