Emotional Self-Efficacy Scale for youth

1. Abstract

The Emotional Self-Efficacy Scale for Youth (ESES-Y) is a psychometric instrument designed to evaluate an adolescent’s subjective belief in their capability to navigate, understand, regulate, and respond to emotional experiences within themselves and across social interactions. Grounded in Albert Bandura’s social cognitive framework and the four-branch model of emotional intelligence introduced by John Mayer and Peter Salovey, the ESES-Y bridges structural ability models with self-referent agentic appraisals. Originally adapted by Pamela Qualter and colleagues from the adult Emotional Self-Efficacy Scale developed by Kirk, Schutte, and Hine (2008), the youth adaptation tailors linguistic complexity and situational contexts to early and middle adolescence (typically ages 11 to 15 years).

The scale captures four multidimensional factors: (1) Using and Managing One’s Own Emotions, (2) Identifying and Understanding One’s Own Emotions, (3) Dealing with Emotions in Others, and (4) Perceiving Emotion Through Facial Expressions and Body Language. Administered through a 5-point Likert-type confidence metric ranging from 1 (Not At All Confident) to 5 (Very Confident), the instrument features 27 retained items across these four domains. Validation studies demonstrate robust psychometric properties, including high internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha values spanning 0.69 to 0.88 for subscales, and surpassing 0.90 for the aggregate score), confirmed structural validity via confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and notable convergent associations with trait emotional intelligence, self-esteem, peer prosocial engagement, and psychological resilience. The ESES-Y serves as a vital diagnostic and evaluative tool for educational institutions, developmental researchers, and clinical child psychologists monitoring social-emotional interventions.

2. Keywords

Emotional self-efficacy, adolescence, psychometrics, emotional intelligence, emotion regulation, social cognitive theory, adolescent mental health, ESES-Y, psychometric validation, socio-emotional learning

3. Authors

The adaptation and psychometric validation of the Emotional Self-Efficacy Scale for Youth (ESES-Y) was established by a research team led by:

• Pamela Qualter, Ph.D. — Professor of Psychology and Education, Manchester Institute of Education, University of Manchester, United Kingdom. Specialist in adolescent socio-emotional development and loneliness.
• Lorraine Dacre Pool, Ph.D. — Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, United Kingdom. Known for pioneering work on emotional intelligence and graduate employability models.
• Kathryn J. Gardner, Ph.D. — School of Psychology, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, United Kingdom.
• Sarah Ashley-Kot, M.Sc. — University of Central Lancashire, Preston, United Kingdom.
• Ann Wise, M.Sc. — School of Psychology, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, United Kingdom.
• Annabel Wols, M.Sc. — Developmental Psychopathology Department, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

The instrument directly builds upon the original adult Emotional Self-Efficacy Scale (ESES) created by:

• Belinda A. Kirk, Ph.D. — School of Behavioural, Cognitive and Social Sciences, University of New England, Armidale, Australia.
• Nicola S. Schutte, Ph.D. — Professor of Psychology, University of New England, Armidale, Australia. Pioneer in emotional intelligence scale development.
• Donald W. Hine, Ph.D. — Professor of Psychology, University of New England, Armidale, Australia.

4. Purpose

Adolescence represents a sensitive developmental period characterized by profound neurobiological reorganization, heightened emotional reactivity, shifting peer relationships, and intensifying academic expectations. During this stage, adolescents frequently encounter challenges in affect regulation and social interaction. While traditional psychometric assessments have focused heavily on either objective cognitive capacity (ability-based emotional intelligence) or stable dispositional tendencies (trait emotional intelligence), they often overlook the self-referent agentic belief in one’s personal capability to execute emotional behaviors—termed emotional self-efficacy (ESE).

The primary purpose of the ESES-Y is to quantify an adolescent’s personal confidence in executing specific emotional competencies. According to Bandura’s social cognitive doctrine, individuals may possess theoretical or intellectual knowledge of what behaviors are required, yet fail to enact those behaviors when confronted with stressors if they doubt their personal capability. Hence, measuring emotional self-efficacy provides distinct predictive power beyond basic intelligence or personality traits.

In educational contexts, the ESES-Y is implemented within Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) frameworks to establish baseline competencies, evaluate classroom climate interventions, and assess outcomes of structured psychosocial curricula. Clinically, the scale functions as an assessment for internalizing symptoms (such as social anxiety, generalized depression, and dysphoria) and externalizing difficulties (such as conduct dysregulation, relational aggression, and impulsivity). By isolating deficits across intrapersonal regulation versus interpersonal perception, clinicians and school psychologists can formulate targeted therapeutic or psychoeducational interventions that systematically elevate the child’s perceived mastery and emotional coping self-efficacy.

5. Psychological Construct

The psychological construct evaluated by the ESES-Y is perceived emotional self-efficacy in adolescents. Rather than assessing basic frequency of behaviors (e.g., ‘How often do you cheer someone up?’) or self-rated personality tendencies (e.g., ‘I am an empathetic person’), the construct specifically gauges perceived capability and confidence (e.g., ‘I know how to… / I can…’). The construct is hierarchical, consisting of an overarching latent emotional self-efficacy dimension split into four correlated, theoretically delineated sub-domains:

1. Using and Managing One’s Own Emotions

This subscale captures the adolescent’s self-efficacy regarding their ability to harness positive affective states for problem-solving, creativity, and goal persistence, as well as their capacity to down-regulate negative emotions such as anger, frustration, and sadness. Sample items evaluate confidence in calming oneself during an anger outburst, recovering from a depressed mood, using an energized affective state to excel in sporting or academic activities, and regulating situational anxiety during school examinations or interpersonal conflicts.

2. Identifying and Understanding One’s Own Emotions

This dimension reflects intrapersonal emotional awareness and cognitive decoding. It measures an adolescent’s confidence in discerning distinct affective states, recognizing the causal antecedents of their moods, and interpreting somatic bodily feedback (such as gastrointestinal tension, increased heart rate, or facial flush). High scores indicate a strong subjective grasp over the origins and fluctuations of personal mood states, preventing emotional confusion, alexithymic numbness, or erratic behavioral reactivity.

3. Dealing with Emotions in Others

This interpersonal facet assesses an adolescent’s perceived agency in empathetic social engagement, relational diplomacy, and social scaffolding. It evaluates self-efficacy in comforting a peer experiencing grief, assisting a peer in mitigating acute anger, interpreting the underlying reasons behind another person’s sudden emotional shifts, and actively cheering up friends in distressing circumstances. This factor reflects the adolescent’s perceived communicative and prosocial competence.

4. Perceiving Emotion Through Facial Expressions and Body Language

A specialized perceptual domain reflecting the adolescent’s confidence in reading non-verbal communication. It encompasses the appraisal of subtle somatic signals, kinesics, micro-expressions, postural cues, and bodily signs exhibited by others, as well as an awareness of one’s own outward emotional expression. Proficiency in this domain underpins successful social attunement, enabling the young individual to respond proactively to non-verbal emotional dynamics.

6. Theoretical Framework

The conceptual infrastructure of the ESES-Y is situated at the intersection of two foundational psychological paradigms: Social Cognitive Theory formulated by Albert Bandura (1977, 1997) and the Four-Branch Ability Model of Emotional Intelligence established by John D. Mayer and Peter Salovey (1997).

Bandura’s Agentic Self-Efficacy Paradigm

Bandura posits that human functioning is mediated through dynamic, triadic reciprocal causation involving cognitive/affective factors, behavioral patterns, and environmental influences. Central to this model is self-efficacy: beliefs in one’s capabilities to organize and execute courses of action required to produce given attainments. Self-efficacy beliefs dictate how much effort individuals will expend, how long they will persevere in the face of obstacles, and their emotional resilience in taxing situations. Within an affective framework, emotional self-efficacy represents an adolescent’s cognitive appraisal of their emotional regulation and communicative capabilities. If a teenager perceives themselves as incapable of regulating intense anger, they are far more likely to default to defensive withdrawal, disruptive aggression, or emotional collapse.

Mayer and Salovey’s Four-Branch Model

The structural taxonomy of emotional tasks operationalized in the ESES-Y originates from the Mayer-Salovey model, which organizes emotional competencies into four functional tiers:

• Branch 1: Perceiving Emotion — The ability to identify emotions in faces, voices, postures, and physical states. In the ESES-Y, this corresponds to Perceiving emotion through facial expressions and body language.
• Branch 2: Facilitating Thought with Emotion — The capacity to generate, use, and feel emotion as necessary to communicate feelings or employ them in cognitive processes (e.g., creative problem solving). In the ESES-Y, this is synthesized within Using and Managing one’s own emotions.
• Branch 3: Understanding Emotion — The ability to comprehend emotional language, relationship transitions, and causal antecedents of complex emotional shifts. In the ESES-Y, this forms Identifying and Understanding one’s own emotions.
• Branch 4: Managing Emotion — The ability to remain open to emotional experiences and regulate emotions in both oneself and others to promote personal and social growth. In the ESES-Y, this is operationalized across intrapersonal self-management and Dealing with emotions in others.

By transforming Mayer and Salovey’s ability framework into Bandura-style subjective confidence items, the scale establishes a psychometric tool that measures subjective self-concept regarding emotional intelligence.

7. Validity

Extensive psychometric investigations reported by Qualter et al. (2015) confirm the high construct, convergent, discriminant, and criterion validity of the ESES-Y across large community and school samples of young adolescents.

Construct and Factorial Validity

Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) provides strong support for a four-factor correlated model, which outperforms a unidimensional single-factor model across multiple goodness-of-fit indices (e.g., comparative fit index [CFI] > .92, root mean square error of approximation [RMSEA] < .05). Furthermore, multigroup invariance testing confirms configural, metric, and scalar invariance across biological sex and early adolescent age cohorts (ages 11–13 vs. 14–15), demonstrating that the underlying construct is measured consistently across these demographic subgroups.

Convergent Validity

The ESES-Y exhibits moderate to strong positive correlations with established indices of trait emotional intelligence (such as the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire—Adolescent Short Form, TEIQue-ASF; r values typically ranging between .50 and .68, p < .001). Additionally, significant positive correlations are observed with measures of general self-esteem (Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale; r ≈ .42 to .54), adaptive problem-focused coping mechanisms, and teacher- and peer-rated prosocial behaviors.

Discriminant Validity

Discriminant validity is supported by modest or near-zero correlations with cognitive capability measures (general fluid IQ; r < .12, non-significant), demonstrating that the scale assesses self-perceived operational confidence rather than academic intellect. Moreover, although the subscales correlate negatively with neuroticism, trait anxiety, and negative affectivity (r values ranging from -.30 to -.45), these relationships remain well below the threshold of collinear redundancy, establishing that emotional self-efficacy is distinct from baseline neurotic temperaments.

Criterion and Predictive Validity

Prospective longitudinal analyses demonstrate that baseline ESES-Y scores reliably predict lower levels of loneliness, reduced depressive symptom scores over a 12-month follow-up, and higher academic resilience. Adolescents reporting elevated emotional self-efficacy show lower involvement in both offline and cyber-bullying perpetration and lower susceptibility to peer victimization, demonstrating clear criterion-related utility.

8. Reliability

The ESES-Y exhibits consistent internal consistency and temporal stability across developmental samples.

Internal Consistency

In the primary adaptation and validation study by Qualter et al. (2015), the internal consistency coefficients (Cronbach’s alpha, α) calculated across adolescent cohorts revealed strong reliability across dimensions:

• Using and Managing One’s Own Emotions: α = 0.88 (10 items), showing high internal consistency for measuring intrapersonal regulatory confidence.
• Identifying and Understanding One’s Own Emotions: α = 0.75 (6 items), indicating solid coherence without excessive item redundancy.
• Dealing with Emotions in Others: α = 0.85 (8 items), demonstrating strong measurement reliability for interpersonal emotional efficacy.
• Perceiving Emotion Through Facial Expressions and Body Language: α = 0.69 (3 items), an acceptable reliability estimate given the brief three-item composition of this subscale.
• Full Composite ESES-Y Scale: α > 0.91, demonstrating robust overall reliability for aggregate scoring.

Test-Retest Stability

Temporal stability evaluated across four- to eight-week testing intervals yielded intra-class test-retest correlation coefficients ranging between r = .78 and r = .84 across the primary subscales. These metrics demonstrate that while the scale captures an enduring sense of personal agency, it remains sensitive to systemic developmental progressions and targeted psychoeducational interventions.

9. Factor Analysis

The factorial architecture of the ESES-Y was systematically identified and refined through a progression of exploratory and confirmatory factor analytic studies.

Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA)

During the initial adaptation phase, items from the adult 32-item ESES were adapted for readability, concrete youth scenarios, and reduced lexical difficulty. Principal Axis Factoring (PAF) and Maximum Likelihood factoring with oblique rotation (promax/oblimin) demonstrated that the adolescent data clustered into four distinct, correlated dimensions rather than a general unidimensional structure. Five items from the original 32-item pool exhibited insufficient item-to-factor loadings (< .35) or complex cross-loadings (> .30 on secondary factors) in adolescent samples (specifically corresponding to items 5, 10, 16, 28, and 29), resulting in their omission and leaving 27 functioning items.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) Fit Indices

Confirmatory factor analytic structural models tested the 27-item four-factor correlated configuration against competing architectures (including a one-factor unconstrained model and an orthogonal four-factor model). The four-factor correlated model provided the most robust fit to empirical adolescent data:

• Comparative Fit Index (CFI): .924 to .941 (exceeding standard .90 benchmarks)
• Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI): .915 to .932
• Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA): .046 (90% Confidence Interval: .041 – .051), indicating close model fit
• Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR): .049

Standardized Factor Loadings

Standardized factor loadings across items consistently span from .45 to .81, with all loadings reaching statistical significance at p < .001. Factor correlations between the four latent variables range from r = .48 to .71, confirming that while these dimensions stem from an overarching emotional self-efficacy construct, each captures non-redundant variance.

10. Instrument / Measurement Tool

• Test Name: Emotional Self-Efficacy Scale for Youth (ESES-Y)
• Alternative Titles: Youth Emotional Self-Efficacy Scale, Adolescent ESES
• Construct Measured: Perceived confidence in identifying, understanding, using, managing, and responding to emotions in self and others
• Intended Population: Children and young adolescents, primarily aged 11 to 15 years (Grades 6 through 10 / Key Stages 3 and 4)
• Administration Format: Self-report questionnaire; available in paper-and-pencil or digital/computer-assisted formats
• Administration Time: Approximately 10 to 15 minutes
• Total Active Items: 27 retained items categorized under four validated subscales (numbered within a 32-item historical structural template)
• Response Scale: 5-point Likert-type scale reflecting confidence:
  • 1 = Not At All Confident
  • 2 = A Little Confident
  • 3 = Moderately Confident
  • 4 = Quite Confident
  • 5 = Very Confident
• Subscale Item Composition:
  • Using and Managing one’s own emotions (10 items): 3, 6, 8, 12, 14, 18, 20, 22, 26, 30
  • Identifying and Understanding one’s own emotions (6 items): 1, 4, 9, 11, 19, 27
  • Dealing with emotions in others (8 items): 2, 7, 13, 15, 23, 24, 31, 32
  • Perceiving emotion through facial expressions and body language (3 items): 17, 21, 25
  • Omitted/Latent Placeholders: 5, 10, 16, 28, 29 (dropped during youth psychometric calibration)
• Scoring and Diagnostic Interpretation:
  • Subscale Scores: Derived either by summing the numerical ratings of the constituent items or by calculating the arithmetic mean (range: 1.0 to 5.0). Mean scores allow direct comparison across subscales regardless of varying item counts.
  • Total Score: Calculated by summing all 27 active items (score range: 27 to 135) or computing the overall mean across all items (range: 1.0 to 5.0).
  • Directionality: All retained items are keyed positively; there are no reverse-coded items. Higher values reflect higher levels of emotional self-efficacy.

11. Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The developmental adaptation and validation of the Emotional Self-Efficacy Scale for Youth was formally published in 2014 (advance online publication) and appeared in issue print in 2015 in the Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment by Pamela Qualter and colleagues, building on the adult instrument established by Kirk, Schutte, and Hine in 2008.

Licensing and Usage: The ESES-Y is generally accessible for non-commercial educational, scientific, and clinical research purposes at no financial cost. Researchers, educators, and psychological practitioners may utilize the items provided they accord full bibliographic attribution to the original developers and psychometric authors. Commercial distribution, integration into fee-for-service digital testing platforms, or proprietary deployment requires formal written licensing permissions from the primary copyright holders and academic publishers (Sage Publications / authors). The instrument can be accessed in academic research repositories, including ResearchGate Publication 271210695.

12. References

Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84(2), 191–215. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.84.2.191

Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. W. H. Freeman.

Dacre Pool, L., & Qualter, P. (2012a). The dimensional structure of the Emotional Self Efficacy Scale (ESES). Australian Journal of Psychology, 64(3), 147–154. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1742-9536.2011.00039.x

Dacre Pool, L., & Qualter, P. (2012b). Improving emotional intelligence and emotional self-efficacy through a teaching intervention for university students. Learning and Individual Differences, 22(3), 306–312. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2012.01.010

Kirk, B. A., Schutte, N. S., & Hine, D. W. (2008). Development and preliminary validation of an emotional self-efficacy scale. Personality and Individual Differences, 45(5), 432–436. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2008.05.018

Kirk, B. A., Schutte, N. S., & Hine, D. W. (2011). The effect of an expressive-writing intervention for employees on emotional self-efficacy, emotional intelligence, affect, and workplace incivility. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 41(1), 179–195. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2010.00708.x

Mayer, J. D., & Salovey, P. (1997). What is emotional intelligence? In P. Salovey & D. J. Sluyter (Eds.), Emotional development and emotional intelligence: Educational implications (pp. 3–34). Basic Books.

Qualter, P., Dacre Pool, L., Gardner, K. J., Ashley-Kot, S., Wise, A., & Wols, A. (2015). The Emotional Self-Efficacy Scale: Adaptation and validation for young adolescents. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 33(1), 33–45. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734282914550383

13. Items of the Scale