GASPRO International Journal of Eminent Scholars

ABSTRACT

Orphans are vulnerable children whose social adjustment capacity can be adversely affected by poor life skills. This study sought to determine the influence of emotional skills, namely self-awareness, self-regulation, and social skills, on the social adjustment of adolescent orphans in government-owned orphanages in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. The study used 210 orphans randomly selected from a population of 440 orphans housed in the five government-owned orphanages in the state. A researcher-developed instrument, the Emotional Skills and Social Adjustment of Orphans Questionnaire (ESSAOQ), was used to obtain data for the study. Section A of the instrument sought information on self-awareness, self-regulation, and social skills, while Section B sought information on social adjustment. The reliability indices using the Cronbach alpha statistic were .80 for self-awareness, .84 for self-regulation, .81 for social skills and .85 for social adjustment.   The scores on each of the independent variables were categorised into two groups of ‘high’ and ‘low’ based on their average mean score. Using the four-point scale, the average mean score below 2.50 was considered to indicate "low" featuring of the variable, while 2.50 and above was considered to indicate "high" featuring. The corresponding mean and standard deviation scores on social adjustment based on the two categories were then compared to determine a significant difference using independent t-test analysis. The results were tested at a .05 level of confidence. The findings showed a significant influence of self-awareness, self-regulation, and social skills on the social adjustment of the participants. It was therefore recommended that the development of life skills in orphans should be intensified in orphanages to enhance their balanced psychological development.

KEYWORDS:     Emotional Skills, Social Adjustment, Orphans, Akwa Ibom State and Nigeria