1. Introduction
The term “Emotional Intelligence” (EI) was first used by Salovey and Mayer (1990). There are currently two models for the conceptualization of EI. The first model is the “ability EI” which considers emotional intelligence as a kind of cognitive ability and the second model that provided by Petrides is the “trait EI” which is a constellation of emotion-related self-perceptions located at the lower levels of personality hierarchies. Contrary to the ability EI which belongs to the area of cognition, the trait EI is related to the field of perceptions and personality and is associated with people’s emotional perceptions of themselves and their emotional abilities.
The Trait EI questionnaire is designed by Petrides (2009) to measure the trait EI. This 153-item questionnaire has a multidimensional and hierarchical structure of 15 facets, four factors and the global score of trait EI.
Despite the wide application of trait EI questionnaire in various health, clinical, social, educational, organizational and development areas, and its translation into more than 15 languages, it has not yet been translated into Persian. Therefore, this study aims to translate trait EI questionnaire into Persian, and examine its psychometric properties in Iranian adult population.
2. Materials and Methods
Participants were 551 students of universities in Tehran, Iran who were selected using a stratified random sampling. After explaining the study objectives them and obtaining their informed consent, they completed the Persian versions of Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue), NEO Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI), and short form of Schutte Self Report Emotional Intelligence Test (SSEIT). The TEIQue was translated independently by three Persian-speaking psychologists. The three translated drafts were matched with each other and sent to two experts in English translation to back translate it into English. After modifications, the final version was approved. To determine the face validity, 30 participants were asked to complete the Persian version of TEIQue. They were asked to mark any difficulties they had in understanding or completing the questions. Based on their comments, all items were understandable. The collected data were analyzed in SPSS software. The internal consistency (by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient) and the split-half reliability were evaluated. The convergent validity was determined in relation to the SSEIT and NEO-FFI. The factor structure was assessed by using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). 
3. Results
Descriptive Analyzes
Participants were 551 college students aged 18-25 years (Mean±SD age= 22.54±3.06 years); of whom, 331 were female. There was no significant difference in terms of age and education level between both genders. There was no relationship between age and EI score. However, there was gender differences in the global score of TEIQue (t=-2.05, P=0.042) and in its factors of well-being (t=-3.45, P=0.001) and emotionality (t=-3.90, P=0.001), where females scored significantly higher than males.
Internal consistency
Cronbach’s alpha value for the overall Persian TEIQue was obtained 0.95, and for its factors of well-being, self-control, emotionality and sociability was obtained as 0.90, 0.80, 0.86 and 0.69, respectively indicating the acceptable internal consistency of this instrument.
Split-half reliability 
The instrument was first divided into two halves (odd and even items), and the reliability of each half was then evaluated. The Cronbach’s alpha value was obtained 0.92 for the first half and 0.89 for the second half, indicating the high split-half reliability of this questionnaire.
Convergent validity
To evaluate convergent validity, the relationship of the Persian TEIQue score with SSEIT score was evaluated. According to the results, there was a significant positive correlation between most of the subscales of these two tests. The relationship between the scores of Persian TEIQue and NEO-FFI was calculated by Pearson correlation test. The results showed a significant correlation between some of the factors of TEIQue and NEO-FFI.
Exploratory factor analysis
According to the results of EFA, four factors was obtained through Varimax rotation. The first factor with a factor load of 0.48-0.78 was “well-being”. The second factor was “sociability” with a factor load of 0.49-0.71. The third factor was “emotionality” with a factor load of 0.52-0.75. Finally, the fourth factor with a factor load of 0.46-0.77 was “self-control” (Table 1).




This factor structure of Persian TEIQue is quite similar to that of the main version.
4. Discussion
The purpose of this study was to determine the psychometric properties of the Persian TEIQue. The results of EFA confirmed that this version had four factors, which is completely consistent with the original version. The Cronbach’s alpha for factors of well-being, self-control, emotionality and sociability was reported 0.90, 0.80, 0.86 and 0.69, respectively, and 0.95 for the global score indicating its acceptable internal consistency. In examining the split-half reliability, Cronbach’s alpha of each half was acceptable for total samples and for males and females which is consistent with other study that examined the reliability of TEIQue with this method [28].  
There was a significant difference in TEIQue scores between males and females, where females had higher global score and well-being and emotionality. This finding is against the findings of Petrides (2009) and Mikolajczak et al. (2007), who showed the higher global score of males, and also against the results of Martskvishvili et al. (2013), Marjanovic, and Dimitrijevic (2014), and Aluja et al. (2016) who reported no gender difference between scores. The possible explanation for this inconsistency is social and cultural differences. Gender differences in emotionality are generally influenced by cultural and social factors, especially the different social roles; Persian culture is very different from Western culture, leading to their different perceptions of emotion. The Persian version of TEIQue has acceptable reliability and validity to be used in research and for measuring trait EI in Iranian adult population.

Ethical Considerations
Compliance with ethical guidelines
This study has been registered in Ethical Committee of Iran University of Medical Sciences (Code: IR.IUMS.REC1393.93-02-121-24736). All ethical principles and guidelines are considered in this article. The participants were informed consent about purpose of this research.

Funding
This research was supported by the Mental Health Research Center, Iran University of Medical Sciences.

Authors contributions
Conceptualization: Ahmad Ashouri, Hamzeh Alimoradi; Research: Meqdad Talebizadeh, Pouya Farrokhnejad Afshar; Research: Ahmad Ashouri, Pouya Farrokhnejad Afshar; Editing and finalizing the writing: All authors; Supervision: Ahmad Ashouri, Pouya Farrokhnejad Afshar

Conflicts of interest
The authors declared no conflict of interest.


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