Emotional Maturity and Level of Self-Reliance of the Children of Overseas Filipino Workers

Working abroad is common, especially in the Philippines, and being away from the primary caregivers impacts the child. Thus, this study focuses on knowing the relationship between emotional maturity and the level of self-reliance of the children of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW). The researchers used descriptive-correlational quantitative and utilized a stratified random sampling method. The study consisted of 100 participants, with 50 females and 50 males who are children of OFW ages 18 to 30 years old and were below 18 years old when their parents started working abroad and must be residing in the Davao Region. This study used the Emotional Maturity Scale by Yashvir Singh and Mahesh Bhargava (1990) to measure the children's emotional maturity and the Self-reliance Questionnaire by Catherine Harrison (2011) to measure whether the respondents are self-reliant. The data gathered showed that the emotional maturity of the children of OFW is average, while self-reliance measures a fair result. The results also showed no significant relationship between the emotional maturity and level of self-reliance of the children of OFW. These findings suggest establishing a good relationship with their children before and while working abroad and encouraging authorities to use more inclusive methods that are beneficial for children of OFW. Moreover, the researchers recommend that future researchers widen the scope of the respondents’ age bracket, expand the population to include the national respondents and perform other ways to test the variables further.