Investigation of Emotional Intelligence Levels of Elite Athletes: The Role of Gender and Age

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this study is to investigate the role of age and gender in examining the emotional intelligence levels of athletes. Methods: The universe of the research consists of licensed athletes in Turkey, and the sample consists of 2736 licensed athletes who continue their active sports life in 2019. As a data collection tool in the research; Voluntary Participation Consent Form and Personal Information Form were used. The Schutte Emotional Intelligence Scale, developed by Schutte et al., (1998), edited by Austin, Saklofske, Huang, and McKenney, (2004), and adapted into Turkish by Tatar, Tok, and Saltukoglu (2011), was used to measure emotional intelligence. SPSS 25 package program was used for the statistical analysis of the data, and descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA and t-test analyzes were used in the analysis of the data obtained. Results: As a result of the analysis, it was seen that there was no significant difference in the comparison of the emotional intelligence sub-dimensions and the total score according to the type of sport they do (p>0.05). According to the age variable of the athletes, between the emotional intelligence sub-dimensions and the total score; there was a statistically significant difference in optimism/mood regulation, use of emotions sub-dimension and emotional intelligence total score (p<0.05). In the sub-dimension of evaluation of emotions, there was no statistically significant difference (p>0.05). Conclusion: When the emotional intelligence levels of the athletes were examined according to the gender variable, it was observed that there was a significant difference in favor of women in the use of emotions, evaluation of emotions and total emotional intelligence scores (p<0.05). The results were discussed in the light of the relevant literature and suggestions were made for future studies.