Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Academic Achievement of Secondary School Students in Ogbomoso Metropolis, Nigeria

This study investigated the relationship between emotional intelligence and academic achievement of secondary students in Ogbomoso metropolis. A descriptive survey and ex-post facto research were adopted for the study. A sample of two hundred and fifty junior secondary school one (JSS3) students was randomly selected from five schools, two private and three public schools within Ogbomoso metropolis. Fifty respondents were purposively selected from each of the five schools. A self – designed instrument was used to collect information on emotional intelligence while scores of each of the students in the junior secondary school certificate examination results in English Language, Mathematics and Basic Science was collected to ascertain their academic achievement. A research question was raised while three hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Regression analysis, t-test, Pearson Product Moment Correlation were used to analyse the hypotheses raised. The result indicated that the majority of the students had high emotional intelligence. It was also found that emotional intelligence significantly contributed to students’ academic achievement. The result also showed that significant difference existed in favour of students with high emotional intelligence. Likewise, the result showed that there was a significant relationship between emotional intelligence and academic achievement among the students. It was therefore concluded that the students had high emotional intelligence and that emotional intelligence contributed to students’ academic achievement. it was recommended that school administrators and educational stakeholders should regularly organize seminars and workshops to train teachers on the importance of emotional intelligence in a bid to enhance better academic achievement among students in the secondary schools. Keywords: Emotional intelligence, academic achievement, relationship, self-esteem, self-awareness. DOI: 10.7176/JEP/13-21-09 Publication date:June 30th 202