Influence of Emotional Intelligence and Social Adjustment on Peer Victimization among Secondary School Students in Emohua Local Government Area of Rivers State, Nigeria (Published)
Emotional intelligence and social adjustment are positive psychological constructs which can help to establish positive attitude and warm relationship among people. So students are expected to imbibe these virtuous constructs so as to relate well with one another and to avoid bullying and antisocial behaviours. Therefore, this correlational study investigated the influence of emotional intelligence and social adjustment on peer victimization among secondary school students in Emohua Local Government Area of Rivers State, Nigeria. A sample of 372 students from public secondary schools in the area was composed from a population of 1548 senior secondary school (1&2) students in Emohua Local Government Area of Rivers State, Nigeria using simple random sampling technique and proportionate stratified random sampling technique. The instrument for data collection is Emotional Intelligence, Social Adjustment and Peer Victimization Questionnaire. The instrument validated through the assistance of three experts in Counselling Psychology has reliability coefficients obtained through Cronbach alpha technique in the range of 0.68-0.82. The results of the study show that emotional intelligence had a high negative and significant influence on peer victimization among secondary school students in Emohua Local Government Area of Rivers State; social adjustment had a high negative and significant influence on peer victimization among secondary school students; emotional intelligence and social adjustment had a negative and significant joint influence on peer victimization. Based on the findings, it was recommended that counsellors, teachers, parents/guardians and religious leaders should make spirited effort to inculcate the virtue of emotional intelligence and social adjustment in the students. This they can do by preaching virtuous principles such as conscientiousness, love, selflessness, and consideration for others among young people including the students.
Keywords: Bullying, Consequences, Emotional Intelligence, Peer victimization, Victims, antisocial behavior, perpetrators, pro-social behavior