Emotional Intelligence as a Correlate of Restiveness among in-School Adolescents in Nigeria Universities: Counselling Implication

The spate of mental health issues and social decadence among the adolescents has necessitated this study which aimed at correlating emotional intelligence and restiveness among the in-school university adolescents in Enugu State higher institutions, Nigeria. The study formulated five research hypotheses which were tested at 0.05 level of significance using correlation co-efficient analysis of Pearson Product Moment correlation. The study adopted a correlation research design and was carried out in four universities in Enugu state. A sample of (N-120)undergraduates were selected through a Peer Nomination Scale and a purposive sample to include equal numbers of male and female, thirty students from each school. Two research instruments were administered to the selected respondents namely; the Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (EIQ) and Restiveness Factor Description (RFD).The instruments were validated through pilot study for the reliability index and vetting for its face and content validity by experts in the field of test and measurement. Descriptive statistics of mean and percentages were employed to code the responses while Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was adopted to test the five hypotheses. The findings from the study returned negative significant correlation between all the five domains of Emotional intelligence and restiveness. The students’ responses on the five emotional intelligence domains were all at average low mean of 2.04, 2.13, 1.96, 1.99 and 1.97 respectively indicating that the restive adolescents are low on Emotional Intelligence. It was recommended that the universities should provide resources both human and materials tailored towards promoting the different components of emotional intelligence. The counselling implications were also proffered.