Abstract

Alisha Joshi*, Subhramanya Nayak, Taniya Thapa, Shakuntala Chapagain and Kalpana Silwal

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Emotional intelligence is one's ability to monitor one's own and others’ feelings and emotions which has been linked to self-esteem, low self-esteem, or the development of emotional and behavioural problems in adolescents and their performance. We aim to measure the relationship between emotional intelligence and self esteem among the adolescents that fosters positive thinking, setting challenges, assertiveness and reduce the incidence of low-self esteem, anti-social behaviour. Methods: A descriptive survey approach was used to collect data from randomly selected 208 adolescents studying in selected PU colleges, Mangalore by distributing self administered questionnaire based on Rosenberg's self-esteem scale and self- constructed rating scale to assess self-esteem and Emotional intelligence respectively from 13/01/2017 to 14/01/2017. Data was analysed by using descriptive and inferential statistics like frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, chi-square and Karl's Pearson correlation coefficient. Result: Majority (52.4%) of adolescents had good emotional intelligence and less than half (47.6%) had poor emotional intelligence. Most (78.5%) of adolescents had high self-esteem and (21.1%) had low self-esteem. Correlation between self-esteem and emotional intelligence of adolescents was found to be positively correlated with r=0.98(p<0.05) with df =206. Self-esteem of adolescents was found significantly associated with age, standard, religion, mother's occupation whereas no significant association was found between emotional intelligence and demographic variables. Conclusion: The overall findings revealed that majority of students had high self-esteem and good emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence was positively correlated with self-esteem. Early identification of low EI would help to implement corrective actions through life skills training and scientific guidance to improve the emotional intelligence of adolescents for their better self-esteem.