Validation of emotional development questionnaire for secondary education (CDE-SEC).

Abstract

The importance of attending to the emotional development of students is increasingly present in the educational field, especially in secondary education. At this stage, adolescents experience a variety of changes and needs that require training and emotional support. However, in order to be able to apply effective educational programmes that promote emotional development, it is essential to know the level of emotional competence of students, and for this purpose, assessment instruments are needed that can appropriately assess this competence. This paper presents the validation of the Emotional Development Questionnaire for Secondary School Students (CDE-SEC). A sample of 1296 students from the first to the fourth year of Compulsory Secondary Education from different schools in Spain was used, although partial samples were used for specific analyses. Several studies have been carried out to demonstrate the internal consistency and validity of the instrument: the calculation of the reliability coefficient, confirmatory factor analysis, and the correlation of the CDE-SEC with recognised measures of emotional intelligence, personality, adjustment difficulties, social behaviour, and self-esteem. In addition, incremental validity was studied by means of a regression study. The results indicate that the CDE-SEC is a theoretically well-founded questionnaire with good psychometric characteristics. In short, it is considered an optimal tool for assessing the emotional competence of secondary school students and evaluating the effectiveness of educational programmes to promote personal, emotional and social development.