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.
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 Abakaliki 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.
Gender is another factor that is suspected to moderate the relationship between emotional intelligence and self-esteem in academic adjustment. According to Phelps and Jarvis (1994), females tended to use more emotion – focused coping strategies like seeking social support while males tend to use more avoidant coping strategies such as denial. However, males and females did not differ in their use of active coping strategies, like planning. Woolfolks (2005) however, maintained that self-esteem could reflect perceptions that do not always match reality. Vohs and Heatherton (2001) argued that due to teachers’ and parents’ expectations and demands on the personality and academic progress of in-school adolescents, these students are in constant strive on how to strike a balance between their emotional intelligence and adjustment in school as well as emotional intelligence and their self-esteem. This suggests the need to investigate further on the extent emotional intelligence could have relationship with in-school adolescents’ self-esteem and academic adjustment; especially in Abakaliki Education Zone of Ebonyi state where the academic achievement of students in the Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE) is declining steadily. For instance, the West African Examinations Councils’ (WAEC) reports of 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 indicated that only 24.94%, 30.99%, 25.99%, 29.27% and 31.28% of the candidates who sat for the examinations obtained five credits including Mathematics and English language, which are the basic requirements for admission into Nigerian universities (WAEC, 2010-2014).
Statement of Problem
Adolescence is a transitional stage of physical and psychological human development generally occurring between puberty and legal adulthood (age of majority). Adolescence is believed to be a period of great stress and storm as rapid physical, emotional, biological and mental changes occur during this period. A thorough understanding of adolescents in society depends on information from various perspectives, most importantly from the area of psychology, biology, history, sociology and education. In-school adolescents could be faced with the challenges of identifying, understanding and managing their emotions in positive ways so as to adjust in the school environment and avoid diminishing their self-esteem. Yet the problem with in-school adolescents in Abakaliki Education Zone is that their achievement in the Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE) is declining steadily. Parents, curriculum planners and evaluators are worried especially when different teaching strategies have been adopted to improve the situation with no satisfactory results. It is believed that if that if the achievements of the students in the Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE) remain poor, it will affect the economic and development of the country. Literature evidence from Western Europe tends show that emotional intelligence of students could serve as a correlate of their self-esteem and academic adjustment. For instance emotional intelligence which is the ability to identify, assess and control one’s feeling and that of others has a vital role to play in in-school adolescents’ academic adjustment. Students may find it difficult to adjust academically when they are ignorant of their emotion and how to manage it. This most times leads to frustration on the part of the students, thereby creating difficulties in adolescents’ academic adjustment and affect their self-esteem. Whether the emotional intelligence of Nigerian students who operate in a peculiar social cultural environment would serve as a correlate of their self-esteem and academic adjustment is yet to be determined.
This study therefore is set to find out if there is any relationship between emotional intelligence of in-school adolescents with their academic adjustment and self-esteem.
Purpose of the Study
The major purpose of this study was to investigate the correlation among emotional intelligence, academic adjustment and self-esteem of in-school adolescents. Specifically, the study sought to:
Determine the relationship between emotional intelligence and in-school adolescents’ academic adjustment.
Ascertain the relationship between emotional intelligence and in-school adolescents’ self-esteem.
Find out gender differences in the relationship between emotional intelligence and academic adjustment of in-school adolescents.
Determine gender differences in the relationship between emotional intelligence and self-esteem of in-school adolescents.
Significance of the Study
The significance of this study derives from the theoretical and practical basis of the correlation among emotional intelligence, academic adjustment and self-esteem of in-school adolescents. Multiple intelligence theory by Gardner (1983) is significant to this study. Gardner maintained that everybody has a different mind, and no two profiles of intelligence are the same. Therefore, the traditional concept of measuring intelligence by I.Q testing is far too restricted. From the 8 primary intelligences, an individual may excel in one, two or even three of these, but nobody is good at them all. Equally the same rule applies to a child prodigy or mentally/physically disadvantaged person. A brain damaged child could have a severely impaired use of language, but be able to paint or play music magnificently. Gardner indicates that by introducing a broader range of learning methods, (known as the intelligences) educators and indeed parents, can cash in on an individual’s strengths and weaknesses by determining their preferred learning style. This would consequently give them the opportunity to learn in ways more productively to their unique minds. The finding of this study will be relevant in promoting this theory since emotional intelligence is the ability to manifest certain adaptive behaviours which result from some measures of intelligence.
Practically, the result of this study will be of benefit to adolescents, teachers, parents and researchers when published. The adolescents will learn to study their emotions from this study as they will have a broader knowledge on how to manage their emotions so as to adjust not only in the school environment but in the larger society. The implication of attaching less value or worth to themselves will be made clearer to them. Teachers of in-school adolescents will be guided on how to help the in-school adolescents to be able to integrate their emotion so as to adjust in the school environment. They will also be aware of the dangers involved when adolescent students are ignorant of their emotions, and find ways of helping them.
The findings will also guide parents in being observant with their adolescent’s children so as to assist them properly when they are ignorant of their emotions and its consequences. Parents will be guided as they make demands on their adolescent children about their academic performance, to find out whether the students themselves are well adjusted in the school environment. Parents and teachers should be aware of the upsurge of hormones and the dramatic nature of development at this level that could result in emotional imbalance, maladjustment and low self-esteem and help in encouraging the adolescents.
The study will contribute to knowledge and literature on emotional intelligence as correlate of in-school adolescents’ self-esteem and academic adjustment. This will be of immense benefit to researchers and students in educational, social and other areas of psychology when published.
Scope of the Study
The study was centered on Senior Secondary One (SS1) students in Abakaliki Education Zone of Ebonyi state. The study investigated emotional intelligence as a correlate of self-esteem and academic adjustment of in-school adolescents. The independent variable in the study is emotional intelligence while the dependent variables include self-esteem and academic adjustment of in-school adolescents.
Research Questions
The following research questions guided the study.
What is the relationship between emotional intelligence and in-school adolescents’ academic adjustment?
What is the relationship between emotional intelligence and in-school adolescents’ self-esteem?
What are the gender differences in the relationship between emotional intelligence and academic adjustment of in-school adolescents?
What are the gender differences in the relationship between emotional intelligence and self-esteem of in-school adolescents?
Research Hypotheses
The following null hypotheses were formulated to guide this study and they were tested at 0.05 level of significance.
HO1: There is no significant relationship between emotional intelligence and academic adjustment of in-school adolescents.
HO2: There is no significant relationship between emotional intelligence and self- esteem of in-school adolescents.
HO3: There is no significant difference in the relationship between emotional intelligence and academic adjustment of in-school adolescents due to gender.
HO4: There is no significant difference in the relationship between emotional intelligence and self-esteem of in-school adolescents due to gender.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
This chapter presents a review of literature on emotional intelligence as correlate of self-esteem and academic adjustment of in-school adolescents. The purpose of review of literature is to explore available related literatures on the topic. Literature was reviewed based on the conceptual framework, theoretical framework, review of empirical studies and summary of review of literature.
Conceptual Framework
Concepts of:
Adolescence
In-School Adolescence
Emotion
Emotional Intelligence
Self-Esteem
Academic Adjustment
Gender
Relationships among In-School Adolescence, Emotional Intelligence, Self-Esteem and Academic Adjustment
Theoretical Framework
Multiple Intelligence Theory by Howard Gardner (1983)
Sigmund Freud’s Personality and Adjustment Theory (1856-1939)
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