Emotional Intelligence in Spanish Elite Athletes: Is There a Differential Factor between Sports?
Daniel Mon-López,
Cecilia Blanco-García,
Jorge Acebes-Sánchez,
Gabriel Rodríguez-Romo,
Moisés Marquina,
Adrián Martín-Castellanos,
Alfonso de la Rubia,
Carlos Cordente Martínez,
Jesús Oliván Mallén,
María Garrido-Muñoz
Affiliations
Daniel Mon-López
Deporte y Entrenamiento Research Group, Departamento de Deportes, Facultad de Ciencias de la Actividad Física y del Deporte, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Calle Martín Fierro, 7, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Cecilia Blanco-García
Deporte y Entrenamiento Research Group, Departamento de Deportes, Facultad de Ciencias de la Actividad Física y del Deporte, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Calle Martín Fierro, 7, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Jorge Acebes-Sánchez
Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Francisco de Vitoria (UFV), Pozuelo de Alarcón, 28223 Madrid, Spain
Gabriel Rodríguez-Romo
Deporte y Entrenamiento Research Group, Departamento de Deportes, Facultad de Ciencias de la Actividad Física y del Deporte, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Calle Martín Fierro, 7, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Moisés Marquina
Deporte y Entrenamiento Research Group, Departamento de Deportes, Facultad de Ciencias de la Actividad Física y del Deporte, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Calle Martín Fierro, 7, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Adrián Martín-Castellanos
Deporte y Entrenamiento Research Group, Departamento de Deportes, Facultad de Ciencias de la Actividad Física y del Deporte, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Calle Martín Fierro, 7, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Alfonso de la Rubia
Deporte y Entrenamiento Research Group, Departamento de Deportes, Facultad de Ciencias de la Actividad Física y del Deporte, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Calle Martín Fierro, 7, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Carlos Cordente Martínez
Deporte y Entrenamiento Research Group, Departamento de Deportes, Facultad de Ciencias de la Actividad Física y del Deporte, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Calle Martín Fierro, 7, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Jesús Oliván Mallén
Deporte y Entrenamiento Research Group, Departamento de Deportes, Facultad de Ciencias de la Actividad Física y del Deporte, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Calle Martín Fierro, 7, 28040 Madrid, Spain
María Garrido-Muñoz
Deporte y Entrenamiento Research Group, Departamento de Deportes, Facultad de Ciencias de la Actividad Física y del Deporte, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Calle Martín Fierro, 7, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Emotional intelligence is a determinant factor in sports performance. The present study analysed differences in total emotional intelligence and its four dimensions in 2166 Spanish athletes (25.20 ± 10.17 years) from eight sports (volleyball, track and field, shooting, football, basketball, handball, gymnastics, and judo). A total of 1200 men and 966 women answered anonymously using a Google Forms questionnaire sent via WhatsApp about demographics and psychological variables. A Pearson correlation was conducted to assess the age–emotional intelligence relationship. An independent T-test and One-Way ANOVA were carried out to check for age differences between biological sex and sport and a One-Way ANCOVA to determine differences between sports controlled by age. Age differences were observed by sex and sport (p p p > 0.05). Judo was the sport with the highest levels of regulation of emotions, other’s emotional appraisal, use of emotion, and total emotional intelligence (p < 0.05). Generally, emotional intelligence was found to be more developed in individual sports than in team sports, except football. Consequently, psychological skills like emotional intelligence could be critical to achieving high performance, depending on the sport.
