The relationship between social-emotional skills and academic achievement among primary school students in Kinondoni Municipality, Tanzania

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Date
2017
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Dar es Salaam
Abstract
Social-emotional skills are considered as important factors in child development, and specifically they play a central role in determining child academic success. Nevertheless, the association of social-emotional skills and academic achievement in the Tanzanian context remains largely unexplored. This study examined the relationship between social-emotional skills and academic achievement among primary school students in selected schools in Tanzania. The study was quantitative guided by correlation design. Furthermore, it employed questionnaire and cognitive tests as data collection instruments. Data were collected from 401 students, with 197 males and 204 females. Students’ level of social-emotional skills was measured by using the social-emotional competence scale, which was originally developed by Ming Zhou and Jessie Ee. Students ‘academic achievement was measured by using Kiswahili and Mathematics cognitive tests. Data were analyzed descriptively by running frequencies to determine the level of social-emotional skills among respondents. Furthermore, data were analyzed inferentially where various analysis tests were conducted such as independent t-test to compare the level of social-emotional skills between high performing public primary schools and low performing public primary schools. Furthermore, multiple regressions were conducted to test the effect of demographic variables such as sex and socioeconomic status on social-emotional skills. Finally, Pearson product moment of correlation was conducted to determine the statistical relationship between social-emotional skills and academic achievement. The results showed that the majority of respondents reported a reasonable moderate and high level of social-emotional skills. Nevertheless, there was no statistical significant relationship between social-emotional skills and academic achievement implying that social-emotional skills did not influence academic achievement. This study could be replicated indifferent contexts to assess if there could be circumstances under which social-emotional skills could have a relationship with academic achievement. There is also a need for future studies to conduct a qualitative study for the purpose of developing a contextually relevant scale that is responsive to the Tanzanian cultural context. This is because social-emotional skills are embedded in a social-economic cultural context of a country.
Description
Available in print form, East Africana Collection, Dr.Wilbert Chagula Library, ( THS EAF LB1139.E5D38)
Keywords
Emotion problems of children, Child psychology, Emotion in children, Academic achievement, Primary school children, Kinondoni municipality, Tanzania
Citation
Daudi, E (2017) The relationship between social-emotional skills and academic achievement among primary school students in Kinondoni Municipality, Tanzania, Masters dissertation, University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam.