A Study of the Emotional Skills of Venezuelan Students in High School and Advanced Vocational Training

Abstract

Having knowledge of the emotional skills of our students and the factors influencing them allow us to develop strategies to improve students' academic achievement, their behavior and the quality of relationships in their educational environment.

This research was designed to diagnose the emotional skills of Venezuelan students who are attending high school or advanced vocational training to determine the relationships that exist between emotional skills and how they connect to the effects of gender, geographical context and age.

The authors carried out afield study supported by questionnaires, interviews and observations. The levels of this research were exploratory, descriptive and correlational. The population consisted of high school students and students of their first semesters of advanced vocational training (between 15-25 years of age) at Venezuelan schools. Purposive sampling of 441 students was used. The data collection instrument was a questionnaire about emotions, based on the Goleman model and validated using different strategies.

The principal findings of the study reveal the existence of significant statistical differences between the emotional skills of students according to gender. Among them, emotional skills for self-management and social competence had the most shortcomings.