INFLUENCE OF PARENTAL VERBAL ABUSE, DOMICILIATION, GENDER AND AGE ON EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN OWERRI, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study investigated the influence of parental verbal abuse, domiciliation, gender and age among secondary school students in Owerri. Three hundred and seventeen secondary school students were selected from three secondary schools in Owerri through the simple random sampling technique. Participants comprised of 141 males and 176 females with ages ranging from 14 to 17 years (Mean = 15.25 years; SD = 0.94). The participants were administered the Parental Verbal Abuse Scale and the Emotional Intelligence Scale. Four hypotheses were postulated and tested. The Cross-sectional survey design was adopted while multiple regression statistics was used to analyze the data collected. Results revealed that parental verbal abuse (β = -.051, p = -.367, t = -.904), domiciliation (β = - 011, p = -.851, t = -.188), gender (β = -.083, p = -.143, t =-1.470), and age (β = -.052, p = .352, t = -.932) separately and jointly (R2 = .010, F(3,313) = 1.073, p = .361; R2 = .013, F(l, 312) = 1.10, p = .403) were not significant predictors of emotional intelligence among secondary school students in Owerri. The study findings suggested that the assumptions that parental verbal abuse, domiciliation, gender, and age could potentially improve emotional intelligence among secondary school students in Owerri may not be true as other factors could be playing such a role. Therefore, the study recommends, among others, that adults should desist from perceiving students from verbally abused homes as people who would score very low on emotional intelligence.