The Impact of Emotional Intelligence Element on Academic Achievement

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of the five emotional intellingence elements identified as self-awareness, emotional management, self motivation, empathy, interpersonal skills towards secondary school students’ academic achievement. This study also aims to identify whether the five elements of emotional intelligence have been able to contribute to academic achievement. Statistical inference of the Pearson-r and multiple regression is used to analyze the data. The results showed that the significant relationship between self awareness (r = 0.21), emotional management (r = 0.21) and empathy (r = 0.21) at the level of p <0.05 with academic achievement. Multiple regression analysis (stepwise) result showed that only three elements of emotional intelligence which is self-awareness (s = 0261), self motivation (s =- 0182) and empathy (s = 0167) accounted for 8.7% of variation in criterion (academic achievement). Research also presented a model designed to reflect the relationship between the elements of emotional intelligence and academic achievement. These studies imply that the level of emotional intelligence contributes to and enhances the cognitive abilities in student. Thus, to produce a competent generation and successful country in line with the philosophy of education, persistence of the emotional intelligence in student is essential. Key words: emotional intelligence, academic achievement, self-awareness, emotional management, self motivation, empathy, interpersonal skills