Emotional Intelligence and Self-Harming Behavior of Junior High School Students with Absentee Parents in a Catholic University

Parental context significantly impacts a child’s growth, whether physical, social, and emotional. Becoming a holistic being requires the integration of various life facets and emotions as one. Emotional intelligence is an essential psychological quality for individuals, especially to adolescents who face stress and pressure daily. Deficits in emotional regulation have been linked to self-harming behaviors. Self-harm encompasses a wide range of activities, and the intentionality, destructiveness, and conventionality of thoughts and acts of self-harm fall along a broad continuum (Vrouva et al., 2010). Hence, this study aimed to assess the emotional intelligence and self-harming behavior of junior high school students with absentee parents to create a program that promotes emotional resilience and self-harming prevention. One hundred sixty-eight stratified-randomly selected Junior high school students with absentee parents in a catholic university during the AY 2023-2024 were the respondents of the study. The result showed that the level of emotional intelligence of the respondents is generally very low. Meanwhile, the level of self-harming behavior of the respondents as a whole is no risk. Comparative analyses showed that there was no significant difference in the level of emotional intelligence of the respondents when they are grouped according to sex, family structure and birth order. There was no significant difference in the level of self-harming behavior of the respondents when they are grouped according to family structure birth order. A significant difference was found in sex. Lastly, the result showed a significant relationship between emotional intelligence and self-harm.