Predicting Emotional-Social Competence Based on Academic Engagement, Self-efficacy and Perception of School Climate in High School Students

The aim of this study was to predict emotional-social competence based on academic conflict, self-efficacy and perception of school climate in high school students in Minab. The research method was correlational, and regression was used to test the research hypotheses. The statistical population consisted of the second-high school students of Minab city from whom 380 people (200 male students and 180 female students) were selected as the study sample by stratified random sampling method. Four questionnaires including Social Emotional Competence, Academic Conflict, Academic Self-efficacy and Perception of School Atmosphere were used to collect data. The results showed that the predictor variables explained about 39% of the variance of the criterion variable. According to the findings, academic engagement (β = 0.224, P = 0.001) significantly predicted socio-emotional competence, which means that as students' academic engagement increases, their socio-emotional competence increases. Also, academic self-efficacy (β = 0.436, P = 0.001) positively and significantly predicted emotional-social competence, which means that with increasing students' academic self-efficacy, their socio-emotional competence also increases. Likewise, perception of school climate (β = 0.193, P = 0.001) positively and significantly predicted emotional-social competence, which means that with increasing perception of school atmosphere, students' emotional-social competence increases. According to the results, academic self-efficacy with a standardized coefficient (β = 0.436) compared to other predictor variables was a stronger predictor of students' emotional-social competence. In general, the research findings support the role of motivational and cognitive variables in students' emotional-social competencies.