Cross-validation of the emotion awareness questionnaire for children in three populations

Abstract

The main aim of the present study was to examine the cross-cultural equivalence of a newly developed questionnaire, the Emotion Awareness Questionnaire (EAQ30) that assesses emotional awareness of children through self-report. Participants were recruited in three countries: the Netherlands (N = 665), Spain (N = 464), and Belgium (N = 707), reflecting three languages: Dutch, Spanish, and French respectively. The results of multigroup confirmatory factor analysis showed that the 6-factor structure of the EAQ30 is similar in all three samples. These results were confirmed by the high coefficients of congruence that indicated factorial invariance across samples. Comparison between the three samples showed minor cultural differences. These findings support the factorial and construct validity of the EAQ30 and suggest that the EAQ30 accurately captures the structure of children’s emotional dispositions, regardless of cultural differences.