Relationship between high school students' motivation, emotional intelligence and academic achievement

There is a relationship between academic achievement and some psychological variabels. In this study, it is investigated how motivation and emotional intelligence as psychological variabels explain achievement. In addition, some relationships and differences based upon demographic variabels are being examined.The study group consist of 407 students (female= 171, male= 236) from 9, 10, 11 and 12 grades in Trabzon province in 2009-2010 academic year. Information Collecting Form, Academic Motivation and Emotional Intelligence Scales were used as data collection tools. Multiple linear regression, independent t test and ANOVA techniques were used to analyse the data.The results of the research have shown that emotional intelligence and motivation variabels have predicted academic achievement of high school students significantly. Besides it is seen that emotional intelligence and academic achievement points of the girls are significantly higher than that of the boys. It has been determined that a decline in motivation and academic success have occured with increasing the level of the grades. When the variable as the type of schools is taken into consideration, it is determined that the academic successes of the Anatolian high school students are significantly higher than that of the students in science, general and vocational high schools. The results have also shown that motivation and academic achievement points of the students who have a higher socio-economic level is significantly higher than the others. When the recidence places of the families are taken into consideration, a significant difference among the academic successes of the students have been determined. Some of the results are parallel to the literature and some are different. The results are discussed in accordance with the literature. The study recommended more variabels that predict academic success.