Emotional Intelligence and its Relation to self-affirmation among Saudi and Jordanian Female Students at Secondary Schools : A Cross-Cultural Study

Abstract

The present study aims at investigating Emotional intelligence and its relation to self-affirmation, among Saudi and Jordanian female students at secondary schools. The study uses a sample that consists of (394) female students, (209) of which are Jordanian female students and, the other (185) are Saudi female students. In order to achieve the study objectives, the researcher used the scale of emotional intelligence, and the scale of self-affirmation. The results shows a statistically significant positive correlation between emotional intelligence and self-affirmation. Moreover, the levels of emotional intelligence and self-affirmation among Jordanian and Saudi female students are high, and there are statistically significant differences between those with high emotional intelligence and those with low self-affirmation. The results also indicates to the predictability of self-affirmation through some dimensions of emotional intelligence. The study also has shows that there are statistically significant differences in terms of the dimension of self-awareness according to the variable of nationality (Jordanian and Saudi) in favor of Jordanian female students. There are also statistically significant differences regarding the dimension of empathy in terms of the variable of the academic route (scientific-literary) in favor of the literary route. Moreover, the study shows existence of statistically significant differences regarding self-affirmation in terms of the variable of the academic route (scientific-literary). The results also indicates that there are no differences in emotional intelligence and its subcomponents or self-affirmation due to the variable of academic achievement level.