Comparison of emotional intelligence and quality of life of athletes’ sports teams in a university
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v75.118244Keywords:
Emotional intelligence, quality of life, university athletes, team sports, well-beingAbstract
Background: Psychological factors have an important impact on athletes’ performance. Emotional intelligence (EI) and quality of life (QOL) are two of the major psychological factors for university athletes who are required not only to go to school full-time but also to train and compete in their sport.
Objective: This study aimed to compare EI and QOL levels and to further explore the correlation between EI and QOL among male and female team-sport athletes and different types of sport.
Methods: The subjects of this study were 178 team-sport athletes who were selected with a simple random sampling method from two universities in Thailand. The instruments of this study were a demographic questionnaire, the WHOQOL-26, and the Emotional Intelligence Scale of the Department of Mental Health (2000). The data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, independent t-test, one-way ANOVA with Tukey post hoc tests, and Pearson correlation
Results: The overall EI of the university athletes was at the normal level (with “Goodness” at the below-average level, “Competence” at the normal level, and “Happiness” at the normal level), while QOL was moderate across all four domains: physical, psychological, social relationships, and environment. There were no significant differences in EI and QOL by gender and types of sport. EI was positively correlated with QOL at the low level (r = 0.39, p < .001).
Conclusion: EI and QOL of university team-sport athletes were not affected by gender and type of sport. They may be more likely to rely on individual psychological skills, training experiences, and social supports. EI could be a potential psychological factor for athletes perceived QOL improvement and is an important component of psychological skills training and athlete support programs.
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