Research Paper Reliability and convergent validity of the Emotional Intelligence Admission Essay Scale, revised Sharon A Gutman 1 and Janet P Falk-Kessler 2 Abstract Introduction: The purpose of this study was to reassess the reliability and convergent validity of the revised Emotional Intelligence Admission Essay Scale, and determine whether the scale could identify students demonstrating professional behavior problems in the classroom and fieldwork environments. Method: Thirty-six student participants completed the revised Emotional Intelligence Admission Essay Scale and Schutte Assessing Emotions Scale. Interrater reliability, internal consistency, and convergent validity were established. Results: Interrater reliability and internal consistency were found to be high (intraclass correlation coefficient ¼ .82, p < .001; Cronbach’s alpha ¼ .96, p < .001, respectively). When participants were separated by age, convergent validity between the Emotional Intelligence Admission Essay Scale and Schutte Assessing Emotions Scale of participants aged  26 years was high (r s ¼ .83, p < .002) compared to those  25 years (r s ¼ .58, p < .002). Six participants (16.6%) received Emotional Intelligence Admission Essay Scale scores of 0 and were identified as potentially exhibiting professional behavioral problems; three of these students demonstrated professional behavior problems in the academic and/or fieldwork settings. Conclusion: The Emotional Intelligence Admission Essay Scale can be used as a screen to identify whether students may exhibit professional behavior problems; however, caution should be used as some identified students may be able to prevent professional behavior problems once aware of program expectations. Keywords Occupational therapy, health care education, academic admission processes Received: 30 September 2017; accepted: 12 February 2018 Introduction In recent years, health care education programs have increasingly used measures of emotional intelligence to assess student applicants based on the awareness that emotional intelligence is a critical skill for health care practitioners (Foster et al., 2015; Shakir et al., 2017). Emotional intelligence involves both intra- and interper- sonal skills. Intrapersonal skills include the ability to recognize one’s own emotions, understand how one’s emo- tions were derived, and use emotion-based information to maintain emotional equilibrium (Salovey and Mayer, 1990; Snowden et al., 2015). Interpersonal skills involve the ability to recognize emotions in others, understand how one’s own behaviors may have influenced others’ emotions, and use emotion-based information to mediate conflict and maintain stable relationships (Di Fabio and Saklofske, 2014). Health care professionals need to have strong emo- tional intelligence competencies to interact well with patients, family members, and health care colleagues; advocate for patient needs with insurers; assist caregivers who are often overwhelmed and anxious; and negotiate possible conflict with colleagues who may feel burdened by high productivity demands within stressful work environments (Ranjbar, 2015; Uchino et al., 2015). Researchers have found that health care students with higher emotional intelligence scores on standardized meas- ures perform more adeptly on clinical internships (Codier et al., 2015; Libbrecht et al., 2014; Rankin, 2013), are rated more favorably by clinical supervisors and patients (Arora et al., 2010; Rankin, 2013; Victoroff and Boyatzis, 2013), are considered as more collaborative and cooperative by treatment team members (Arora et al., 2010; Victoroff and Boyatzis, 2013), and are more likely to complete their health care education programs (Jones-Schenk and Harper, 2014; Rankin, 2013). 1 Professor of Rehabilitation and Regenerative Medicine, Programs in Occupational Therapy, Columbia University Medical Center, USA 2 Associate Dean, Vice Chair, Professor of Rehabilitation and Regenerative Medicine, Programs in Occupational Therapy, Columbia University Medical Center, USA Corresponding author: Sharon A Gutman PhD, OTR, FAOTA, Professor of Rehabilitation and Regenerative Medicine, Programs in Occupational Therapy, Columbia University Medical Center, Neurological Institute, 8th Floor 710 West 168th Street, New York, NY, 10032, USA. Email: sg2422@cumc.columbia.edu British Journal of Occupational Therapy 1–8 ! The Author(s) 2018 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0308022618763053 journals.sagepub.com/home/bjot