Validation of the cultural intelligence scale on a Serbian sample

Abstract

This study deals with determining reliability, factorial validity, and convergent-discriminant validity of the Cultural Intelligence Scale (CQS) and its subscales on a sample of university students in Serbia (N = 336). The convergent-discriminant validity of the scale and its four subscales are verified by testing the relationship with measures of social and emotional intelligence (Social Skills Inventory), personality (Big Five), and self-assessment of inter-cultural experience. The study results reveal high reliability of the scale and its subscales (.79 lt = alpha lt = .90), and confirm the four-factor structure of the CQS in accordance with the theoretical model that lies in its basis. In addition, the relationships of cultural intelligence measures and measures of other constructs are in line with the expectations. The correlations with measures of social and emotional intelligence are mostly statistically significant, ranging from low to moderate. Deviations from this pattern of correlations are explained by certain characteristics of the Social Skills Inventory, which imply the nature of the components of cultural intelligence at the same time. The CQS and its subscales reach the strongest correlation with Openness (.24 lt = .r lt = .41), compared to other basic dimensions of personality, but not to an extent that would suggest that they are indicators of the same construct. The correlations of the CQS and its subscales with the measures of intercultural experience are positive and mostly statistically significant. The results, in general, support the implementation of the CQS for assessment of individual differences in the intercultural interaction in the Serbian population.