R. Vatsala Mirnaalini and S. Gayatridevi
Avinashilingam Institute of Home Science and Higher Education for Women, Coimbatore
Pages:466-471
Learning disabled adolescents are susceptible to psychoeducational issues due to
poor academic performance (Weis et al., 2017). These issues can be managed by
fostering emotional intelligence (Sainz-Gómez et al., 2024). Hence, this study aims to
identify the predicting factor of emotional intelligence among Learning Disabled
Adolescents. For the study, 66 learning disabled adolescents in the age group of 11 to
16 years from Saraswathi Kendra Learning Centre for Children and Wisdomms Learning
Centre for Special Children, Chennai, were selected based on Purposive Sampling.
The Schutte Self Report Emotional Intelligence Test (Schutte et al., 1998), Schonell’s
Reading Test and Schonell’s Spelling Test (Schonell, 1942; Jethwani & Subhashini,
2020) were administered to the participants. The results were computed using multiple
linear regression in SPSS. The mean reading age, spelling age and emotional intelligence
are 12 years, 11 years and 126 (moderate emotional intelligence) respectively. The
result shows a significant model, F (2, 63) = 185.33, p < 0.01, R2 = 0.86. The predictors
were examined further and indicated that reading age (t = 2.17, p < 0.05) and spelling
age (t = 8.08, p < 0.001) were significant predictors. The findings show that the reading
age and spelling age explains 85.5% of the variance in emotional intelligence. Among
the 2 variables, spelling age makes the largest unique contribution (beta = 1.23) in
predicting emotional intelligence, although reading age also made a statistically
significant contribution (beta = – 0.33). The results can be used to design a teaching
methodology to promote emotional intelligence by providing better reading and spelling
opportunities to learning disabled adolescents. Further study is recommended to test
the result based on gender, socioeconomic status and other psychosocial factors