Emotional Intelligence and Indiscipline among Secondary School Students in Kilifi County, Kenya

Indiscipline among secondary school students has received little research attention in relation to their emotional intelligence level. The main objective of this study was to establish the relationship between emotional intelligence and indiscipline among public secondary school students in Kilifi County. The study was informed by Kohlberg’s theory of Moral development. A Correlational research design was adopted. The independent variables in the study were emotional intelligence and indiscipline target population was all the year 2018 from four students in public secondary schools in Kilifi County. Purposive, simple random and cluster sampling procedures were used in the selection of schools, teachers and students respectively. The study sample size was 279, comprising 145 girls and 126 boys, 6 teachers and two discipline masters. Data was collected using an adapted Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test and an indiscipline scale for teachers and students. A pilot study was conducted to enhance the reliability, content validity and construct validity of all the research instruments. The pilot study was also used to ascertain administrative logistics. In the pilot study, 36 from four students from one of the extra-county school participated. Descriptive statistics including frequency distributions, mean of variance and percentages were used to describe sample characteristics. Inferential statistical procedures including Pearson correlation and multiple regression, were used to test study hypotheses at α=0.05. Emotional intelligence showed a strong negative relationship (r=-0.764*) with the students’ indiscipline level. A major recommendation of the study was that teachers, educators and all stakeholders in education should work together to enable the development of emotional intelligence of students to reduce students’ indiscipline levels.