Dr Moyosola Jude Akomolafe & Oyinade Esther Kolawole
Abstract
This study investigated the predictive influence of emotional intelligence on career maturity of senior secondary school students in Abuja, Nigeria. The design used for this study was descriptive research of survey type. The population comprised all secondary school students in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Nigeria. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select 816 students from 12 public and 12 private secondary schools. Thirty four students were drawn from each of the selected secondary schools in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Nigeria. Two adopted instruments: Emotional Intelligence Scale (EIS), and Career Maturity Inventory (CMI) were used for data collection. The instruments were validated by one expert in counselling psychology and another one in tests and measurement. The internal reliability coefficient stood at 0.87 for EIS and CMI in the current study. Data collected were analysed using mean scores and simple regression. One research question was raised and one hypothesis guided the study and was tested at 0.05 level of significance. The result showed that emotional intelligence significantly predicted career maturity (f = 12.59, p<0.05). Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended that, teachers, parents, school administrators and school counsellors should keep on working hard to enhance and maintain emotional intelligence of students and effectively guide them towards appropriate career decision-making.