The Brief Version of the Mentalization Scale (MentS-12): Evidence-Based Assessment of Mentalizing Capacity.

Recognizing the need for a concise self-report measure of mentalizing capacity, we developed a 12-item iteration of the well-established Mentalization Scale (MentS). Using college student and community samples of Serbian adults (N = 566), we performed a precise selection of items and then examined the psychometric attributes of the shortened scale (MentS-12). The new scale maintains the original three-dimensional structure: self-related mentalization, other-related mentalization, and motivation to mentalize. MentS-12 proves to be both reliable and structurally consistent. To improve its utility in therapeutic contexts, we determined clinical change thresholds for both the complete and abbreviated forms. We hope that its feasibility stimulates the integration of the MentS-12 in longitudinal research projects and real-world clinical settings.

The Mentalization Scale (MentS): A Self-Report Measure for the Assessment of Mentalizing Capacity.

The psychometric properties of a new 28-item self-report measure of mentalization, the Mentalization Scale (MentS), were examined in 2 studies: with a sample of employed adults and university students (N1 = 288 + 278) and with a sample of persons with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and matched controls (N2 = 62 + 62). Besides the MentS, both studies employed measures of attachment and the Big Five; Study 1 also included assessments of empathy and emotional intelligence. MentS whole-scale internal consistency was good in the community and acceptable in the clinical sample (α = .84 and .75, respectively). A principal components analysis of Study 1 data yielded 3 interpretable factors, or subscales: Self-Related Mentalization (MentS-S), Other-Related Mentalization (MentS-O), and Motivation to Mentalize (MentS-M). These showed acceptable reliabilities (α = .74-.79), except for MentS-M in the clinical sample (α = .60). MentS scores further exhibited a coherent pattern of correlations with cognate constructs and the Big Five, relating positively to empathy, trait and ability emotional intelligence, openness, extraversion, and conscientiousness, and negatively to attachment avoidance and anxiety, and neuroticism. Persons with BPD scored significantly lower on MentS total and MentS-S. The proposed scale is thus deemed suitable for quick, yet meaningful, assessments of mentalization in both individual differences research and clinical contexts.

The Role of Strategic Emotional Intelligence in Predicting Adolescents' Academic Achievement: Possible Interplays with Verbal Intelligence and Personality.

As recent meta-analyses confirmed that emotional intelligence (EI), particularly strategic EI, adjoins intelligence and personality in predicting academic achievement, we explored possible arrangements in which these predictors affect the given outcome in adolescents. Three models, with versions including either overall strategic EI or its branches, were considered: (a) a mediation model, whereby strategic EI partially mediates the effects of verbal intelligence (VI) and personality on achievement; the branch-level version assumed that emotion understanding affects achievement in a cascade via emotion management; (b) a direct effects model, with strategic EI/branches placed alongside VI and personality as another independent predictor of achievement; and (c) a moderation model, whereby personality moderates the effects of VI and strategic EI/branches on achievement. We tested these models in a sample of 227 students (M = 16.50 years) and found that both the mediation and the direct effects model with overall strategic EI fit the data; there was no support for a cascade within strategic EI, nor for the assumption that personality merely moderates the effects of abilities on achievement. Principally, strategic EI both mediated the effects of VI and openness, and independently predicted academic achievement, and it did so through emotion understanding directly, "skipping" emotion management.