Abstract:
This study determined the influence of gender and parental background on emotional intelligence among senior secondary school students in Jigawa state, Nigeria. Four research questions and hypotheses were formulated to guide the study and ex-post facto research design was employed to conduct it. The population of the study comprised all senior secondary school students in the State with a total number of 40980. A sample of three hundred and fifty-one (351) male and female students was systematically selected. Two instruments were used for data collection namely: The State Emotional Intelligence Scale (SEIC) and the Parental Background Scales (PBS). Data collected was statistically analyzed by using descriptive statistics and t-test for independent sample in Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) at 0.05 level of significance. The major findings of the study indicated that female students were more emotionally intelligent than the males. However, no significant difference exists between students with a high socioeconomic parental background and students with a low parental background on emotional intelligence. A significant difference was also not found between male students from a high socioeconomic parental background and male students from low parental background on emotional intelligence. Additionally, there was no significant difference between female students from a high socioeconomic parental background and female students from a low parental background on emotional intelligence. Given the findings, it is recommended that the government should introduce emotional intelligence in the curricula at all levels of education. Teaching strategies related to emotional intelligence should include different learning styles, group discussions, peer teaching and so on, and instructors should share their personal experiences on how they dealt with emotion.
