Emotional Intelligence, Self-Efficacy and Self-Esteem as Predictors of Secondary School Students’ Academic Achievement in Biology Anambra State

The study investigated emotional intelligence, self-efficacy and self-esteem as predictors of secondary school students’ academic achievement in biology. Four research questions and eight hypotheses guided the study. The correlational survey design was adopted for the study. The population of the study was 63, 325 senior secondary school year two (SS2) biology students in Anambra state. A sample of 2,204 SS 2 biology students was involved in the study. The instruments for data collection were Emotional Intelligence Scale (EIS), Academic Self-Efficacy Scale (ASES) and Self-adapted Esteem Scale (SES) validated by two lecturers in Departments of Science Education and Educational Foundations, from NnamdiAzikiwe University, Awka and one experienced secondary school biology teacher. The students’ achievement was obtained from the schools’ biology students’ diary. The reliability of the instruments was established using Cronbach Alpha which yielded 0.68, 0.80, 0.75 for EIS, ASES and SES respectively. The data obtained were analyzed using Pearson correlation cofficients and linear regressions. The findings of the study revealed that achievement scores biology was significantly predicted by emotional intelligence and academic self-efficacy except self-esteem. Achievement scores in biology were significantly co-predicted by students’ emotional intelligence, academic self-efficacy and self-esteem. The study recommended that orientation exercises should be conducted for students at the beginning of new academic year to access, evaluate and improve their emotional intelligence and self-efficacy with activities bordering on emotions and self-efficacy.