Assessing Students’ Emotional Competence in Higher Education: Development and Validation of the Widener Emotional Learning Scale

Abstract

This article reports the development and validation studies of the Widener Emotional Learning Scale (WELS), a self-report measure, for assessing students’ social and emotional competence in higher education. Conceptual specifications, item development, psychometric properties, and factor structure of the instrument are reported in the article. The resulting instrument consists of 33 items with 5 subscales: Awareness of Emotions in Self and Others, Tolerance of Difference or Conflict, Interpersonal Relationship Skills, Flexibility in Perspective-Taking and Behavior, and Self-Management Skills. A cross-validation study of the WELS with the Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory (Bar-On EQ-i) provides evidence that, although the WELS assesses some aspects of social and emotional competence also assessed by the Bar-On EQ-i, it makes a unique contribution in assessing flexibility in perspective taking and behavior. A cross-validation study of the WELS with the Mayer—Salovey—Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) indicates that, in general, the WELS assesses different aspects of emotional competence than the MSCEIT, in a manner that is consistent with the differences in the theoretical approaches underlying the two instruments.