@2024 Afarand., IRAN

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ISSN: 2383-2150    Journal of Education and Community Health 2014;1(3):38-46

Background
In 1990,the concept of emotional intelligence was first used by a psychologist named Salovey to understand people`s emotions and to sympathize with them [1].
Previous Studies
… [2-14].The studies have indicated that social support plays a vital role in reducing the stress [15]. It, also,causes the transformation of emotional intelligence [16]. ... [17].
Aim(s)
This study aimed to investigate the relationship between emotional intelligence and communicative skills of high school students in Hamedan based on Social SupportTheory.
Research type
This study is descriptive-analytic.
Research society, place and time
This study was accomplished among 497 high school students in 2014 in Hamadan.
Sampling method and number
The sample size was calculated 497. The sampling was randomly stratified; first, the schools were divided into two categories in terms of the district (zone 1 and 2). Then, each category was divided into two subclasses according to the type of the school (public, private). Attendance the schools by girls or boys was the next factor in dividing the sub-classes. Thus,in the end, eighth subgroups were established within the population. Selecting the samples from each subgroup was according to the number of students in that group. Subgroups were divided to several clusters based on the existing schools. In groups in which the required sample size was more than 75, two schools were chosen as the samples, and in other groups only one school was selected. It should be noted that students with no records of mental illness entered the study.
Used devices&materials
The data was collected using written questionnaires and through self-reporting. The questionnaire had been designed containing four main sections of participants` demographic questions, the standard questionnaire of communicative skills, emotional intelligence questionnaire, and social support questionnaire. Demographic and background questions including information about age, gender, grade score, level of literacy, parental employment status, family size, birth order, economic conditions, housing, and whom they are living with at the moment were completed through self-reporting. Communicative skills questionnaire is the Persian version of Burton GE questionnaire[18] which examines the communicative skills in three levels of verbal, auditory, and feedback with 6 questions for each level. The questions were based on5-point-Likert scalewith 6 as the lowest and 30 as the highest score in each skill. In order to assess the reliability of the questionnaire, a preliminary study was carried out on 30 students who were demographically similar to the target population and Cronbach's alpha was calculated 0.71. It is notable that the validity and reliability of the questionnaire has also been confirmed in another study [19]. Shutt`s emotional intelligence questionnaire which was constructed by Shutt et al. in 1998 based on the initial model of emotional intelligence by Salovey and Meyer [20], investigates the emotional intelligence with 33 questions. The participants express the extent of their agreement or disagreement on each statement in a five-item Likert scale from (1 = strongly disagree) to (5= strongly agree); indeed, question 5, 28 and 33 are scoring reversely from (5= completely opposition) to (1= strongly agree).The lowest score is 33 and the highest score is 165. The reliability of the questionnaire in this study was assessed on 30 students and Cronbach's alpha was 0.87. To design and establish the theoretical variables of social support which include: emotional support, instrumental support, informational support and appraisal support, a sample of MOS social support questionnaire was employed, which was developed in 1991 by Sherbourne and Stewart [21], and received some modifications according to its title. In terms of emotional support, informational support, instrumental support and appraisal support, the questionnaire contained 10, 7, 5, and 3 questions, respectively. This scale is a self-reporting tool and participants express the degree of their rejection or consent to each of the statements on a 5-point Likert scale (never = 1 point, rarely = 2 points, Sometimes = 3 points, often = 4 points and always = 5 points). The lowest score is 25 in this test and the highest score is 125. Participants` higher score on this scale indicates that they benefit from a more favorable social support. In order to assess the reliability of the questionnaire, a preliminary study was carriedon 30 students of the intended population and Cronbach's alpha was 0.84. To examine the validity of the questionnaire, content validity ratio (CVR) and content validity index (CVI) were calculated 0.86 and 0.83, respectively. Statistical analysis: The data was analyzed using correlation tests between quantitative variables according to Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients, between qualitative and quantitative variables according to independent t-test and analysis of variance, and all the analyses were done using SPSS 18 statistical software with 95% of certainty level.
Findings by Text
51.3% of the participants were female students and 48.7% were male. Participants’ age varied from 14 to 17 years. The study showed that 75.3% of the students had a mean grade score of 18 to 20.78% of the students had families with 4 to 5 people. 52.9% of the students were the second or the third child of the family.Mothers of 58.8% of the students and fathers of 52.2% of the students had Diploma or had finished their highschool.Female students` mean score of emotional intelligence (95.7) was more than those for male students (82.1). The results of statistical independent t-tests and ANOVA used to compare the mean score of communicative skills in terms of demographic characteristics illustrated (Table 1) that there was a significant relationship between the total communicative skills and variables such as gender, age, family size, and parental education of students. (p<0.05)however, such relationship was not exist between thetotal communicative skills and variables such as economic conditions, housing status, parent`s occupation and the status of living with parents. The results of Table 2 show the students` level of communicative skills in whichthere are three levels of poor (6-14), medium (15-22) and good (23-30) for these skills. The results indicated a medium level of communicative skills for students. Table 3 shows the mean, standard deviation and correlation coefficient matrix between components of social support, emotional intelligence and communicative skills. As seen in the table,there is a significant relationship between emotional intelligence and all the structures of social support (p<0.05), as is between communicative skills and the structures of social support (p<0.05). Table 4 represents the statistical indicators of social support`s theoretical variables in terms of gender. The results of the table confirm that the mean scores of all social support structures,except the appraisal support, among female students are higher than those in male students.
Main comparison to the similar studies
The results of this study are in consistent with the findings of studies by Hosseinchari[22] and Khatami [23] who had assessed students` level of communicative skills and had not reported an appropriate level for these skills. …[24-27].In this study, female students obtained a higher score in social support. This finding goes along with the results of the study by Riyahiet al. who reported a higherscore of social support in female students [28] but contradicts the results of the study by Rambod et al. [29] who have reported a lower score of social support in female patients. ... [30-31].
Suggestions
An interventional research with the same title should be done experimentally on the effect of teaching emotional intelligence on the adolescents` communicative skills.
Limitations
Receiving the data through self-reporting is one of the limitations of this study.
Conclusions
There is a significant relationship between emotional intelligence and communicative skills with the structures of Social Support Theory.
Acknowledgments
Many thanks are addressed to the Vice Chancellor for Research and Technology of Hamedan University of Medical Sciences, the authorities of Hamadan Educational Institute, and headmasters and high school students in Hamadan.
Conflict of interest
Non-declared
Ethical Permissions
The students filled the letters of consent,and they were explained to about how to accomplish the project.
Funding Sources
This study has been taken from a thesis for the master degree in the field of health instruction, which has been approved by the Faculty of Health and Research Center of Social Determinants on Health, Hamedan University of Medical Sciences, and financially supported by the Vice Chancellor for Research and Technology of the University.

TABLES and CHARTS

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