The purpose of this study is to examine the mediation effect of emotional intelligence on perceived social support and school adjustment in elementary school students.
For the purpose of this study, the concrete research questions are as follows ; ...
The purpose of this study is to examine the mediation effect of emotional intelligence on perceived social support and school adjustment in elementary school students.
For the purpose of this study, the concrete research questions are as follows ; (1) to examine any difference in school adjustment in elementary school students by background variables such as their gender, the order of birth, and achievement level perceived by themselves. (2) to examine the correlations among perceived social support, emotional intelligence and school adjustment in elementary school students. (3) to examine the mediation effects of emotional intelligence on the relationship between perceived social support and school adjustment in elementary school students.
To achieve the above research questions, 318 students in 6th grade in elementary school had participated in survey. Except for 12 questionnaires answered insincerely among them, 306 questionnaires were used. Instuments used in this study were the perceived social support test by Han Mi-Hyun(1996), emotion Inteligence test by Moon Yong-Lin(1999) and school adjustment test by Kim Yong-Rae(2000).
The summarized results of this study are as follows. First, statisticaly significant differences were found in emotional intelligence according to students’ achievement level perceived by themselves. Differences based on gender and birth order were not statistical significant. In other words, the higher one perceives his/her grades in school to be, the higher his/her school adjustment were. Second, among perceived social support, school adjustment, emotional intelligence, there were statistical significant positive relationships in each other variables. Third, with regard to the effects that the subordinate areas of perceived social support, friends’ support, parents’ support, teachers’ support, have on school adjustment and subordinate areas, the subordinate areas of emotional intelligence such as recogniton and expression of emotion, empathy, promotion of emotional thought, use of emotional knowledge were proved to mediate partially or completely. Therefore, it can be concluded that emotional intelligence has indirect effect on the elementary school students’ school adjustment.
The implications of this study are as follows. First, it suggests necessity to study for a structural relationship get social support, school adjustment, and emotional intelligence. Second, students who do not get social support sufficiently from friends or parents can be helped to be adapted to school by increasing their emotional intelligence. So, it is necessary to develop an useful emotional intelligence increasing program. Third, because social support influences to school adjustment directly so much, training for being a good supporter has to be offered to teachers and parents.