TRANSLATION AND VALIDATION OF THE GENOS EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE INVENTORY (CONCISE VERSION) FOR USE IN SRI LANKA

Background: Emotional Intelligence (EI) is a multi-dimensional concept.The Genos EI Inventory is designed to measure the frequency with which an individual displays emotionally intelligent behaviours across seven dimensions. There is paucity of research on EI of individuals in the healthcare sector and lack of an appropriate instrument for the assessment of EI in Sri Lanka. Objectives: To translate the Genos EI inventory (concise version) to Sinhala language and to validate it to be used among Sri Lankan medical students Method: Genos EI inventory was translated to Sinhala and administered to 50 medical students. The internal reliability scores were checked by calculating Chronbach's alpha using SPSS v22.0 and the values were compared with the reference values for the original questionnaire. Results: Reliability of the translated questionnaire was 0.89 and the Chronbach's alpha for six out of seven subscales met the appropriate reliability scores. Conclusions: Translated Sinhala version of the Genos EI inventory is found to be reliable to be used among Sri Lankan medical students.


Introduction
The concept of Emotional Intelligence (EI) was introduced in the early 1990s by Salovey 1 and Mayer who defined it as "a type of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one's own and others emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide one's thinking and actions."Emotional Intelligence is multidimensional concept.It has been proven that people with good EI show better social functioning and interpersonal relationship and that peers have identified them as less 2 antagonistic and conflictual .
The literature reveals several methods 3 available for the measurement of EI .These are "ability-based" methods that measures the mental ability to do with emotions used by Mayer and Salovey, (1997), the "traitbased" method that focuses on socio-The Genos Emotional Intelligence Inventory is designed to measure the frequency with which an individual displays emotionally intelligent behaviours across seven 6 dimensions (Emotional Self-Awareness, E m o t i o n a l E x p r e s s i o n , E m o t i o n a l Awareness of Others, Emotional Reasoning, Emotional Self-Management, Emotional Management of Others and Emotional Self-Control).The inventory is applicable to adults (18+) in the workplace and the inventory items are scored on a five-point Likert scale, from 'Almost Never' to 'Almost Always'.This inventory provides an overall EI score and seven subscale scores.The Genos EI Concise questionnaire is an internationally recognized tool used to evaluate EI in the corporate and education sectors.This self-administered inventory maybe deemed suitable to assess EI in the Sri Lankan context for several reasons.Firstly, it takes only about 10 minutes to complete which would result in a high response rate and increased accuracy of responses.Furthermore, it has sub scale score reliability levels that meet the minimum standards for research.
Research in the field of Emotional intelligence is sparse in Sri Lanka.Emotional Intelligence has been assessed in 7 the fields of management , military sector and school populations but not in the field of health or medicine in the local context.The few published papers indicated that the Genos Emotional inventory of 71 items had been used, without translation to native 8 language .It is reasonable to assume that tools developed in the west in a non-native language are not appropriate for assessing an attribute such as EI as they will not only cause linguistic problems but also lead to m i s i n t e r p r e t a t i o n d u e t o c u l t u r a l discrepancies when administering to a Sri 9 Lankan population .
Emotional Intelligence is an important attribute especially in the medical sector.The paucity of research on EI of individuals in the healthcare sector could be due to the lack of an appropriate instrument for the assessment of emotional intelligence in Sri Lanka.Lack of proper data on the emotional intelligence of the corporate or the education sectors were also prime motivators in this endeavour.The importance of using a tool which has been culturally validated and translated to Sinhala is important especially in the case of assessing an attribute such as EI.Such a tool would be useful in obtaining a more comprehensive, unbiased result with regard to EI in Sri Lanka where the English literacy rate is fairly low (14% of the general Intelligence Test (MSCETT) , take about 30-45 minutes to complete and many consist of over 100 items, which may cause a poor response rate.However the Genos' instrument has sufficient face validity, is easy to understand and require less time to complete.This instrument when translated would be useful not only as an evaluation tool but also in the recruitment of persons to courses and employment especially in the health sector where a high degree of EI is essential as the care of patients require team work with favourable interpersonal relationships and social skills.

To t r a n s l a t e t h e G e n o s E m o t i o n a l Intelligence inventory (concise version) to
Sinhala language and to validate it to be used among Sri Lankan medical students.

Material and Methods
The Genos Emotional Intelligence inventory (concise version) consisting of 31 items was accessed with written consent from the a u t h o r s o f t h e q u e s t i o n n a i r e .T h e questionnaire was translated to Sinhalese language (the native language of a majority of Sri Lankans) by an expert in English-Sinhala translation (Supplementary m a t e r i a l ) .T h e s e m a n t i c s o f t h e questionnaire was considered by the expert during the translation.The Sinhalese questionnaire was translated back into English by another qualified language expert, with a nationally recognized degree in English.Comparisons between the original questionnaire and the back translated version were made.Discrepancies were noted and addressed.The data from the questionnaires was entered into a database, and analyzed using SPSS v.22.0 with regard to reliability of the translation.The internal reliability scores of the seven sub scales were checked by calculating Chronbach's alpha for each sub scale of the EI measurement tool.The values were compared with the reliability scores o b t a i n e d f o r t h e o r i g i n a l c o n c i s e 6 questionnaire .Impact of each of the sub scales on the total reliability was also calculated.

Results
The response rate was 74% (37/50).The Chronbach's alpha values were obtained for the complete questionnaire and the subscales.
The internal reliability of the complete questionnaire was 0.899.The Chronbach's alpha values for six out of seven sub scales indicated reliability.However, the reliability of EAO sub scale was low.Comparison of the internal reliability scores of the translated questionnaire with the original version, and the respective reliabilities of the complete questionnaire if each item was deleted, is shown in table 1 The reliability scores of the translated questionnaire were found to be comparable with those of the original questionnaire.

Discussion
The analysis of the validated and translated questionnaire using Chronbach's alpha revealed the internal validity of the questionnaire to be 0.899.In general settings it is considered that a Chronbach's alpha value above 0. subsequent to translation .

Conclusion
The validity of the translated version of the Genos Emotional Intelligence inventory (concise version) was established.The Sinhala translation met the minimum reliability scores to be used in the Sri Lankan context.However, items of the EAO sub scale need to be reviewed and revised.
10 population in spite of an average literacy 11 rate of 91.4%)Other tools available to assess EI such as the emotional competence inventory (ECI), Bar-On emotional quotient Inventory (EQI), and M a y e r -a l o v e y -C a r u s o E m o t i o n a l 12 rd questionnaire was administered to 3 year m e d i c a l u n d e r g r a d u a t e s f r o m t h e Universities of Peradeniya and Rajarata, Sri Lanka to obtain the face validity.The study sample included 25 students from each faculty, and males and females were included equally within the study sample.

Table 1 .0: Comparison of reliability scores of the translated questionnaire with the reliability scores of the original Genos EI subscales (concise version) and subscale reliability in the whole questionnaire.
.0.
the internal validity was not disrupted during the process of translation and validation.However it must be noted that the reliability may have been improved further if certain English terms were provided along with the Sinhala version especially of the items in the EAO scale and if cultural confounders, could have been mitigated by a panel of experts 9