Self-assessed emotional intelligence has appeared to maintain a correlation with self-esteem. Such a correlation is likely to signal that the two traits reflect a latent, superordinate trait of aptitude and/or maintain reciprocal effects on each other. Estimating the reciprocal effects given the superordinate trait is the task of this study. In this study, structural equation modelling is used to analyse survey data gathered from 405 undergraduates. Results verify that self-assessed emotional intelligence could form a second-order factor, which could identify a third-order factor of aptitude, together with self-esteem and grade point average. Given such a hierarchical factor model, self-esteem indicated a significant positive effect on self-assessed emotional intelligence. However, the positive effect of self-assessed emotional intelligence on self-esteem was not significant. The results favour the view about the top-down influence of self-esteem on self-assessed emotional intelligence.
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