Pupils’ Self-Esteem and Emotional Intelligence as Correlate of Their Psychological Well-Being in Primary Schools in Anambra State

Abstract

The study determined pupils’ self-esteem and emotional intelligence as correlate of their psychological well-being in primary schools in Anambra State. The study was guided by two research questions and two null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 alpha level. Correlational research design was adopted for this study. The population of the study comprised 37,190 basic five pupils in Anambra State. A sample size of 817 pupils was draw for the study using multistage sampling procedure. Three sets of instruments: ‘‘Self-Esteem Scale (SES)”, ‘‘Emotional Intelligence Scale (EIS)” and “Psychological Well-being Scale (PWS)” were used for data collection. The instruments were subjected to face validation by three experts who are lecturers, two from the Department of Early Childhood and Primary Education and one in Measurement and Evaluation from the Department of Educational Foundations, all in the Faculty of Education, Nnamdi Azikiwe University. Cronbach alpha method was used for a test of internal consistencies of the instruments which yielded overall coefficient value of 0.79 for SES, 0.76 for EIS and 0.81 PWS. Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was used to answer the research questions and t-test of correlation was used to test the hypotheses. The findings of the study revealed among others that there is a strong and significant relationship between pupils’ self-esteem and their psychological well-being in primary schools in Anambra State. It was also found that there is a strong relationship between pupils’ emotional intelligence and their psychological well-being in primary schools in Anambra State. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that school counselor should identify and render professional supports to pupils with low emotional intelligence to help them to effectively manage their emotions in positive ways to improve their psychological well-being.