Evaluating teachers’ social-emotional competence is key to studying the effectiveness
of education systems. This competence tends to be measured through selfreports,
which might lead to a distorted vision. As an alternative, situational judgement
tests have emerged. The present work seeks to adapt the Test of Regulation in
and Understanding of Social Situations in Teaching (TRUST) to Spanish. The study
involved 503 teachers from schools who teach in primary (n = 198, 106 female) or
secondary education (n = 305, 201 female). Average age was 45.07 (SD = 9.94), and
teachers had an average of 16.77 years’ professional experience (SD = 10.17). In
addition to responding to the TRUST, those who took part also responded to the
ICQ-15, TEIQue-SF, and ERQ questionnaires. Confirmatory factor analysis provided
a good fit of the two-factor model (emotional regulation and relationship
management): χ2 (89) = 198.49, p < .001, CFI = 0.93, TLI = 0.92, RMSEA = 0.049,
90% CI [0.040, 0.059], SRMR = 0.042, as well as reliability and convergent validity.
Factorial invariance is seen to hold amongst both women and men as well as
between teachers who teach at different stages of the education system. The Spanish
version of TRUST emerges as a valid and reliable tool for measuring teachers’
level of social-emotional competence, both in the Spanish education system at basic
levels as well as with Spanish-speaking teachers from various countries, since situations
are presented which are common in any type of school.
