The Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Academic Achievement of Senior Secondary School Students in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to determine whether there is a significant relationship between emotional intelligence and academic achievement of students in mathematics. To guide the study some research questions and hypotheses were generated. The research design for the study was correlation survey design. The instruments used for the study were the Emotional Intelligence Inventory and Mathematics Achievement Test. The Emotional Intelligence Inventory has reliability coefficient of 0.79 while the Mathematics Achievement Test has reliability coefficient of 0.94. The population for the study was the senior secondary school two students in public schools in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Nigeria. Proportionate stratified sampling was used to select the sample (N=1160) for the study. The responses of the students to the instruments were scored and analyzed using mean and Pearson Product Moment Correlation. To test the level of significance of the correlation coefficient the t-test was used. The result   showed that there was a significant low positive relationship between the emotional intelligence of SS2 students and their academic achievement in mathematics. The result also indicated that there was a significant low positive relationship between the emotional intelligence of SS2 male students, SS2 female students, urban school students, and rural school students, and their academic achievement in mathematics. It was therefore concluded that apart from cognitive factors, emotional intelligence of students also affects their academic achievement in mathematics. It is recommended that there is need to include emotional intelligence curriculum in schools.

Keywords: Emotional Intelligence, Academic Achievement, Relationship