The current study, using a factor level analysis approach, provides evidence of the validity of the Social Emotional Development Instrument (SED-I) for students in higher education. Although there are a multitude of models and measures that borrow from the premise of emotional intelligence (EI), very few current instruments focus exclusively on a developmental path of social emotional competence development for young adults. In addition, prior validity studies with these measures fail to include a full spectrum of potential convergent and discriminant analyses assessed at the factor level. This validation study suggests that the SED-I is a reliable, robust and comprehensive measurement for assessing college students' social emotional competency changes. Limitations and suggestions for future research are also discussed.