ABSTRACT
This study sought to determine whether emotional intelligence serves as a correlate of in-school adolescents’ self-esteem and academic adjustment. This desire was also motivated by the need to determine the gender differences in the relation between among emotional intelligence, academic adjustment and self-esteem of in-school adolescents in Enugu State. Four research questions and four null hypotheses guided the study. The design of the study was correlational research design. A total of 600 (249 males and 351 females) senior secondary class one students proportionately drawn from public senior secondary schools in Enugu State made up the sample for the study. Three instruments namely: – In-school Adolescents’ Emotional Intelligence Scale (IAEIS), Self-Esteem Rating Scale (SERS) and Academic Adjustment Rating Scale (AARS) were developed, validated and used for the study. The internal consistency reliability of the instruments were calculated using Cronbach Alpha procedure and reliability estimates of .80, .83, and .70 were gotten for IAEIS, SERS and AARS respectively. Data obtained through the administration of the three were and analyzed using Pearson’s r, R2 (coefficient of determination) to answer the four research questions while ANOVA and multiple regression were used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 levels of significance which revealed the following findings: Emotional intelligence is a significant predictor of academic adjustment of in-school adolescents. Emotional intelligence of in-school adolescents had twenty-nine percent contributions in predicting their academic adjustment; emotional intelligence is a significant predictor of in-school adolescents’ self-esteem. Emotional intelligence had forty-five percent contribution in predicting the in-school adolescents’ self-esteem; significant gender differences do not exist in the relationship between emotional intelligence and academic adjustment of in-school adolescents. Gender of in-school adolescents had five percent contribution in predicting the relationship between emotional intelligence and academic adjustment of in-school adolescents; No Significant gender differences exist in the relationship between emotional intelligence and self- esteem of in-school adolescents. Gender of in-school adolescents had seven percent contribution in predicting the relationship between emotional intelligence and self-esteem of in-school adolescents. A major educational implication of the findings was that the in-school adolescents could be educated on the importance of emotional intelligence as the predictor of academic adjustment and self-esteem. It was thus recommended that emphasis should be given to educating adolescents on the importance of emotional intelligence as the predictor of academic adjustment and self-esteem and that the conflicting signals from the societal system that are causing confusion of interpretation for young persons should be checked
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
The adolescents are individuals bounded by childhood and adulthood. The upper limit of adolescence is the beginning of adulthood while the lower limit is bounded by childhood. The adolescents in most cases fall within the secondary school years, and educators expect the adolescents to be out of secondary schools at 18 years (Santrock, 2005). In this study, adolescents are taken to be people between ages 11 and 18years. This age group is unique in the sense that several developmental changes manifest in them and determine to a great extent their temperament and approaches to certain issues of life.
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In-school adolescents undergo profound changes during their adolescent years in their physiological, social, intellectual and moral development. The in–school adolescents are adolescents who are currently in secondary schools. The major developmental task of adolescence was seen by Atkinson, Atkinson, Smith, Bem and Nolen-Hocksema (1993) as being able to create an identity, to develop answers to questions such as: who am I? Where am I going? Atkinson et al maintained that the psychoanalyst, Erikson coined the term identity crisis to refer to this active process of self-definition. The word crisis is perhaps unfortunate because Erikson believed this period of self-doubt to be an integral part of healthy psychological development. Similarly, most developmental psychologists believe that adolescence should be a period of role experimentation (Santrock, 2005). This is a period of self-doubt or period of role experimentation in which the young persons can explore alternative behaviours, interest and ideologies. Many beliefs, roles, and ways of behaving may be ‘tried out’, modified, or discarded in an attempt to shape an integrated concept of the self. Ideally, the identity crisis should be resolved by the early or mid-twenties so that the individual can move on to other life tasks but this is not always the case as some of the adolescents may fail to resolve the identity crisis till later in life.
Adolescents transiting from junior secondary school to senior secondary school are faced with a lot of challenges as adjustment and growth process takes a lot of effort and also requires hard work. Adolescence is referred to as a time of storm and stress brought on largely by raging hormones (Lefton and Brannon, 2003) and it brings a lot of psychological difficulty for some adolescents. Adolescence is a transitional stage between the time puberty begins and the time adult status is approached (Berk, 2004). This is closely followed by dramatic changes in the individual and these changes affect the adjustment ability and behaviours of in-school adolescents.
Emotions play a significant role in people’s lives and especially for adolescents, who at this time strive to form their personal identities. Madhavi, Waddar, Vijayalaxmi and Aminabhavi (2010) maintained that emotional intelligence is one’s ability to perceive emotions, integrate emotion to facilitate thought, understand emotion and to regulate emotions to promote personal growth. When in-school adolescents lack such ability, it becomes difficult handling cognitive activities and regulating emotions in both oneself and others. They also strive to look presentable and be in charge of their emotions (Collins, Welsh and Furman, 2009), as they will hear “look at this old man, your mates are coming first in class” and your are still sleeping in the morning and “make sure you come back before 6:00pm, young children should not stay out late” from caregivers. This seems to create psychological turbulence as these adolescents adjust academically, build their self-esteem and develop emotional intelligence.
Emotional intelligence has to do with the understanding of one’s emotional information. Grewal and Salovey (2005:24) opined that ‘emotional intelligence is the ability to monitor one’s own and other feelings, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions’. Emotional intelligence plays powerful role in people’s lives and it helps in understanding and controlling emotions and using them in a more beneficial way. Emotional intelligence was also seen by Segal and Smith (2013) as the ability to identify, use, understand and manage emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, overcome challenges, empathize with others, and defuse conflict. This has to do with adolescents’ ability to perceive, control and evaluate emotion. Lack of emotional intelligence or empathy for the needs and desires of others could be one of the main causes of academic maladjustment.
According to Parker, Rubin, Earth, Wojslawowics and Buskirk (2006), adjustment is the behavioural process by which humans maintain equilibrium among their various needs or between their needs and the obstacles around them. A sequence of adjustment begins when a need is felt and ends when it is satisfied. Santrock (2008) maintained that adjustment refers to a continuous process by which a person change his own behaviour or tries to change the environment or bring changes in both to produce a satisfactory relationship with his environment. Lopes and Salovey (2004) are of the opinion that adjustment is the individuals’ ability to fulfill one’s psychological needs and one’s self-acceptance as well as enjoying life without any type of conflict. Santrock (2008) opined that adjustment is not a one way process in which the individual conforms to the duties and requirement of others but rather a two way process, for it is the ability to be oneself, hold on to one’s requirement and needs. It does not imply a state or condition of contentment or pure mind. Since life is constantly changing “that is from childhood to adolescence or from junior secondary to senior secondary” the ability to revise ones attitude and behaviour appropriately is an essential ingredient of adjustment. Adjustment could be seen as the process of adapting to something or an environment and when this is not achieved, maladjustment sets in. Adjustment entails accepting social activities or participation in social activities. This implies that adjustment is the individual’s meeting of his psychological demands and accepting oneself. Adjustment in this context is the state of harmonious relationship between a person and his environment.
Academic adjustment of individual was defined by Boulter (2002) as the ability to fit, and adapt to accommodate himself in order to satisfy his educational needs. Academic adjustment describes the well-being of the child as the child settles into school and is typically measured by adolescents’ perceptions, or attitudes towards school; their level of anxiety, behaviour in the classroom and performance on tasks. In-school adolescents in Nsukka education zone may be faced with these challenges of adjusting as they progress in their academic pursuit.
Teachers’ and parents’ expectations on adolescents’ self-perceptions, involvement in classroom activities, conduct problem and learning as well as demands at the senior secondary level also increase, creating the need for adjustments on the part of the students (Newman, 2000), and this most times lead to a higher level of stressors than what the students faced in junior secondary school. In their study, Kupersmidt and DeRosier (2004) found that these in-school adolescents typically encounter developmental adjustment problems in the area of school, parents, friends and dating, and this depends on the type of school atmosphere. Kupersmidt and DeRosier maintained that senior secondary students represent a major context in which many developmental challenges will be negotiated. Adolescents just entering the senior secondary school environment may deal with autonomy issues in response to a senior secondary school environment requiring more self-reliance from students (Graham, Bellmore and Mize, 2006). When the in-school adolescents face stressful situations, such as moving into senior secondary school, changing teachers, changing schools and classroom, Kimmel and Weiner (1985) maintained that the disturbances in the adolescents’ behaviour could occur; or that the adolescents may show constructive adaptation through the use of beneficial coping responses.
One of the developmental tasks that have been suspected to be affected by emotional intelligence is self-esteem. The development of self-esteem is perhaps one of the most crucial elements of an individual’s growth process, affecting who one is, how one expresses oneself, and the position one takes throughout life (Whitesell, Mitchell, Kaufman and Spicer, 2006). Self-esteem is a disposition that one has which represents the one’s judgment of one’s own worthiness. Woolfolk (2005) saw self-esteem as an affective act that encapsulates the value or worth one attaches to oneself. In-school adolescents may experience more negative peer influence, anxiety with performance in school and fear of being independent than ever before (Vohs and Heatherton, 2001); and these trends could indicate an increase in the amount of pressure that they face. These pressures could originate from children’s stress which on the long run may tear down the walls of confidence; affect their academic adjustment and diminish their self-esteem. Self-esteem is an individual characteristic that all humans possess and are continually striving to improve.
Literature evidence from Western Europe tends to suggest that emotional intelligence could have some relationship with self-esteem and academic adjustment. According to Vohs and Heatherton (2001), there are two components of self-esteem; which are the reflective outer component and the active inner source. The reflective outer component is derived from feeling loved and worthy and could be enhanced by adults as they treat adolescents with respect; setting fair but firm limits and helping them feel good about themselves. The second component of self-esteem which is the active inner source is based on adolescents’ actual competences and abilities. Vohs and Heatherton (2001) argued that this inner self-esteem is enhanced by helping children and adolescents develop the necessary skills to succeed in school and be emotionally intelligent.
Another factor that may have relationship with in-school adolescents’ emotional intelligence is academic adjustment. For instance, George (2000) observed that an emotionally intelligent person has the ability to understand the emotions of others and manage their moods in the social setting and this could help the individual to adjust better in social and academic life. This is in line with the statement of Robbins (2009) that when the individual understands the emotional state of their teachers, the individual may be more likely to convey a sense of efficacy, competence, optimism and enjoyment. Robbins asserted that students who are emotionally intelligent are usually successful in the classrooms. Gore (2000) emphasized that students who have low emotional intelligence hardly understand teachers’ emotions for effective learning and achievement. One wonders the extent emotional intelligence of in-school adolescents would predict their understanding of their teachers’ emotions which could facilitate academic adjustment.
