The factor structures of the STEM and the STEU

► The factor structures of two new EI tests, the STEM and STEU were examined. ► No evidence for an interpretable multi-factor structure was found for either test. ► Only full-scale scores should be used for these tests. The factor structures of two recently developed measures of emotional intelligence, the Situational Test of Emotional Understanding and Situational Test of Emotion Management (STEU, STEM; MacCann & Roberts, 2008) were examined. The results did not support a factor structure of either measure’s subscales indicated by the approach used in developing the test items, and examination of the factors obtained using parallel analysis to determine the number of factors to extract did not yield interpretable factors. These findings suggest that only total scale scores should be used for these tests, although the general factor extracted from the items was not strong for either test; further development work on these tests is indicated.