The purpose of this research is the effect of emotional intelligence and basic psychological needs and academic achievement goals on academic achievement with regard to the mediating role of academic self-efficacy and academic adjustment of students. The current research is applicable in terms of its purpose, and descriptive in terms of its nature, with a path analysis approach. The statistical population of the research includes 500 students of the 5th grade high school in Ninoy city, Bashiqa district; 244 of whom were selected by cluster random sampling using the Cochran formula. To collect research data, five standard questionnaires were used: Golman's emotional intelligence (2001), basic psychological needs of Guardia et al. (2000), Middleton and Midgley's academic achievement goals (1998), Morris's academic self-efficacy (2001), Sinha and Singh's academic compatibility (1993), and Salehi's academic progress (2014). The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed, and the reliability of the instrument was approved using Cronbach's alpha coefficient in a preliminary study for emotional intelligence questionnaire as 0.91, basic psychological needs 0.86, academic achievement goals 0.90, academic self-efficacy 0.89, academic compatibility 0.84, academic achievement 0.83. Data analysis was done using Pearson's correlation coefficient analysis and path analysis in SPSS and Lisrel statistical software. The results showed that emotional intelligence, basic psychological needs, and academic achievement goals have a positive and significant effect on students' academic achievement, directly and indirectly, with the mediating role of self-efficacy and academic adjustment.
Extended abstract
Introduction
For today's societies, proper education with the aim of achieving higher social, occupational and economic positions is considered as one of the main goals for both parents and policy makers of countries, and the criterion of the effectiveness of education is the academic progress of students. Therefore, knowing the different dimensions of academic progress and variables related to it is the first and main step for this goal (Shahabadi, 2016). Researchers state that in order to reach a high level of academic skills, in addition to general cognitive abilities, a person must achieve appropriate growth in aspects such as controlling emotions and excitements; in other words, students without achieving these components which develop emotional intelligence will not be able to learn the subjects optimally (Jafari, 2019). Emotional intelligence, as a form of social intelligence, represents a person's ability to face and adapt to psychological pressures. Some experts believe that people who have the ability to recognize, use, and regulate emotion have a considerable advantage in the educational environment and social communication (Mattingly, 2020). One of these theories presented by Ryan & Deci (1985) is the theory of basic needs. This theory is rooted in the theory of self-determination, and is known as psychological need satisfaction (Moreno-Casado et al, 2022). Studies show that one of the variables affecting academic progress is self-efficacy (Esteban et al, 2022). In the social-cognitive approach (Bandura, 1987), it is defined as an epistemic reference that includes cognitive structures to provide mechanisms for understanding, evaluating, and regulating behavior (Vasile et al, 2011). Self-efficacy theory states that what people believe about themselves strongly affects their work and activity (Klassen et al, 2018). According to the issues raised, this research tries to examine the question of whether emotional intelligence and basic psychological needs and academic achievement goals have a significant effect on academic achievement with regard to the mediating role of academic self-efficacy and academic adjustment.
Theoretical Framework
Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence includes accurate and correct understanding of emotions, creation and access to emotions in order to pay attention to thoughts, emotional understanding and knowledge, regulation of the flexibility of emotions in order to strengthen emotional and intellectual growth (Hashim & Khalil, 2018).
Basic psychological needs
Basic psychological needs are originally realized when a person feels that he can choose his own behavior and determine his own actions and goals (Tian et al, 2014).
Academic progress goals
The theory of progress goals is also one of the most prominent and complete frameworks for understanding motivation in the fields of education and skills, based on which learners, according to the goals they adopt, are widely and differently involved in educational activities (Adebisi & Olu-ajayi, 2022).
Achievement progress
Academic progress is the success of students in one or more subjects (for example: comprehension, reading comprehension or numerical calculation), such progress is measured by academic tests. Also, this term refers to a person's progress in class, as assessed in school work (Abotalebi, 2020. (
Academic self-efficacy
Self-efficacy is a stable and clear feeling of a person's worthiness and ability to cope effectively with many stressful situations (Hayat et al, 2020).
Academic compatibility
Academic adaptability is a multi-dimensional concept and it means the ability of people to respond successfully to the diverse and different demands of the educational environment, having positive attitudes towards the established academic goals, completing the academic requirements, and the effectiveness of the efforts in order to achieve these conditions, and a person's positive attitude towards the educational environment (Sayyar, 2022).
Sabihabdollah Alharishavi et al, (2024) investigated the effect of learning and motivational strategies on the self-efficacy of physical education and sports science students with the mediating role of academic achievement goals and enthusiasm. The results showed that the effect of learning and motivational strategies, academic achievement goals and academic enthusiasm on students' academic self-efficacy was positive and significant. It was also found that the mediating role of academic achievement goals and academic enthusiasm in the effect of learning and motivational strategies on academic self-efficacy was positive and meaningful.
Pelikan et al, (2023) investigated the role of basic need satisfaction for motivation and self-regulated learning during COVID-19: a longitudinal study. The results showed that all the measured constructs remained stable during that time period. Satisfying basic needs had a cross-sectional relationship with intrinsic motivation. We found no crossover effect on intrinsic motivation. Self-regulatory learning showed small but significant cross-lagged positive effects on intrinsic motivation at all time points. Implications and perspectives for future research are discussed.
Research methodology
The current research is applicable in terms of its purpose, and descriptive in terms of its nature, with a path analysis approach. The statistical population of the research includes 500 students of the 5th grade high school in Ninoy city, Bashiqa district; 244 of whom were selected by cluster random sampling using the Cochran formula. To collect research data, five standard questionnaires were used: Golman's emotional intelligence (2001), basic psychological needs of Guardia et al. (2000), Middleton and Midgley's academic achievement goals (1998), Morris's academic self-efficacy (2001), Sinha and Singh's academic compatibility (1993), and Salehi's academic progress (2014). The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed, and the reliability of the instrument was approved using Cronbach's alpha coefficient in a preliminary study for emotional intelligence questionnaire as 0.91, basic psychological needs 0.86, academic achievement goals 0.90, academic self-efficacy 0.89, academic compatibility 0.84, academic achievement 0.83.
Research findings
Data analysis was done using Pearson's correlation coefficient analysis and path analysis in SPSS and Lisrel statistical software. The results showed that emotional intelligence, basic psychological needs, and academic achievement goals have a positive and significant effect on students' academic achievement, directly and indirectly, with the mediating role of self-efficacy and academic adjustment.
Conclusion
The current research was conducted with the aim of the effect of emotional intelligence and basic psychological needs and academic achievement goals on academic achievement with regard to the mediating role of academic self-efficacy and academic adaptation of students. The results of this research are in agreement with the results of Sabihabdollah Alharishavi et al, (2024), Pelikan et al, (2023), Xu et al, (2023), Sheu et al, (2022), Chandrahasa et al, (2022), Babaei Parsheh & Mosadeghi Nik (2022), Rasoli et al, (2022), Moradi et al, (2022), Ashkoti et al, (2022), Alhadabi & Karpinski (2020), Amiri (2020), Babajani Gorji et al, (2019), Sahib & Amiri (2020), Chandrahasa et al, (2022), Eghdami & Yousefi (2018), Pelikan (2023), Janke (2022), Price et al, (2019), Tarwardizadeh et al, (2020), Okwuduba et al, (2021), Esteban et al, (2022), and Sheu et al, (2022). Janke (2022) found out that the effect of basic psychological needs on the motivation of students' academic progress is positive and significant, and the development of students' learning goal orientation has a positive and significant effect on the motivation of their academic progress.
According to the results of the research, the following proposal is presented:
It is suggested to pay attention to other aspects of students' intelligence, including emotional intelligence, in addition to cognitive intelligence. The important matter of education is better and more effective in a friendly and free atmosphere. It is better for teachers to pay attention to the emotions of their students, which are sometimes positive and sometimes negative, and not to ignore these emotions.