Effectiveness of emotional intelligence on mood profile in female student athletes

  Abstract   Introduction : Sport is an emotional experience for many athletes and Negative emotions can hurt performance both physically and mentally, thus an athlete's ability to maintain control of their emotions before, during and after competition is essential to successful performance. The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of emotional intelligence components training on Athlete and non-Athlete girl Students’ Profile of Mood States.   Methods: The pretest, posttest randomized control group quasi­ experimental design was adopted for the study. Using multi -stage cluster sampling 120 girl students (60 athlete, 60non athlete) were selected in Tehran, Then they were replaced in the two experimental groups and two control groups. As pretest and post test emotional intelligence questionnaire and Brunel Mood Scale was administrated for each groups. Emotional intelligence components training during eleven sessions twice a week was applied for experimental groups. The control groups did not receive intervention . . Data were analyzed by univariate covariance (ANCOVA).   Findings: The results indicate that emotional intelligence component training had a significantly effect on both Athlete and non-Athlete girl Students’ Profile of Mood States and covariance analysis showed that Compared with the control group, the experimental group Statistically significant increased in positive mood(vigor)and decreased in negative moods(anger, tension ,fatigue and depression). In confusion as a negative mood, there were no significant differences between control and experimental groups.   Conclusion : Based on these findings , in link with previous research unlike IQ , emotional intelligence can be expandable through training . Thus, mental health professionals especially sports psychologists and school counselors can benefit from the positive consequences of emotional intelligence training to their clients.