Before retiring, Dr. Gloria O. Diezmo conceived of finding out the Emotional Make-up of Senior Students. To complete this research that involved three hundred eighty-six (386) senior students from the five big high schools in the Division of Las Piñas, Ma. Theresa O. Alvarez collaborated with Dr. Diezmo and personally administered the instrument. The research is on The Emotional Intelligence of Senior Students from Intact and Single-Parent Families.
Among other things, the study was made to find out how emotionally equipped the graduating students were specially because they were approaching adulthood. Using the 25-item E.Q. questionnaire, an instrument designed by experts from the Values Education Department of the PNU, the questionnaire describes the five basic emotional and social competencies namely: 1) Self-awareness, 2) Self-regulation, 3) Motivation, 4) Empathy and 5) Social Skills. Personal interviews and observations were likewise conducted to complement whatever findings the questionnaire will provide.
Among the findings significant in the study is the fact that the respondents from intact families (families with parents) are both stable in managing emotions and recognizing emotions of others. Female respondents for intact families are more stable in knowing one's emotion and in handling relationships. Male respondents are more stable in motivating one's self, taking the initiative and in persevering in the face of setbacks and frustrations.
Significantly, we may say that even among seniors who are older, the impact of parenting is indeed great. Our youth have special needs and one of them is the need for the parent figure, someone who will guide and watch over them. With good parenting, seniors are better in managing emotional stress and are more considerate in the feelings such that there is lesser chance of them being involved in a behavioural problem such as violence or sexual aggression. The study also corroborates an old behavioural principal that the families are more mature than males in the period of adolescence. Petty crimes are therefore expected to be more prevalent with the male gender. The last significant behavioural finding noted that self-motivation may have been good for the male but when this is operated under the influence of negative values, these are strong indicators of why boys are prone to aggression.
Under the watchful eye of the counsellor therefore, and with the simple subject teacher (since all teachers should be guidance teachers who exemplify positive values) these tendencies are to be recognized as telltale signs of how the emotional need of our clients are being addressed and put to good use.
The researches mentioned above are significant in pointing out that our students, no matter how “normal” or “regular” we look at them, will be having special needs. Unfortunately however, the public school system does not want to provide for items for guidance counsellors anymore and gives priority only to teachers. Unfortunately, too, with the onset of BEC, some administrators may no longer check on how values education can be played up in integration and help us to stop the fulfilment of the prophecy of doom made by some ill-advised mentors: wala ng values ngayon” (no more values education) . These two researches, however, show us the real need. Values should always be present no matter how it is integrated. For all you know, the behavioural problem student or the learning disabled pupil may just be sitting near you or in the corner of the room in a regular school not needing to be mainstreamed anymore but likewise rendered inutile or liable by the predicament he is in. Thus indeed, even our regular students may be children or youth with special needs.
