Analysis on Emotional Intelligence Levels of Physical Education and Sports Students in Sports

The purpose of this descriptive study is to compare the emotional intelligence levels and demographic attributes of students enrolled in different departments of Balıkesir University School of Physical Education and Sports during the 2018-2019 academic year. The research population was composed of 865 students receiving education in different departments of School of Physical Education and Sports, while the sample is composed of randomly selected 304 students among this population. The study utilized “Emotional Intelligence Inventory in Sports” developed by Schutte et al. (1998), revised and adapted by Lane et al. (2009) for use in sports with Turkish reliability and validity performed by Adiloğulları and Görgülü (2015). α=0.927 was established as the reliability coefficient of the inventory. The Anova test, Kruskal Wallis test and Jonckheere-Terpstra test were used in data analysis. All analyses were performed with SPSS v17.0 (SPSS Science, Chicago, IL, USA). The study concluded emotional intelligence levels of the participants differ in the variable of age in the dimensions of using feelings, in the variable of department in the dimensions of evaluating one’s own feelings and social skills, and finally a difference existed in the variable of age concerning life satisfaction. Moreover, no relation was ascertained between the emotional intelligence of the participants and their life satisfaction.


Introduction
Emotional intelligence has increased in popularity within education and other fields in recent years [2].Emotional intelligence plays a significant role in the communication among individuals.Individuals utilize emotional intelligence to process thoughts, feelings and reactions to circumstances encountered within their lives.From the conceptual perspective, emotional intelligence indicates the individual's ability to be aware of their own emotions as well as those of others and to manage their emotions accordingly [7].Emotional intelligence brings together the fields of emotions and intelligence by viewing emotions as useful sources of information that help one to make sense of and navigate the social environment [24].The first branch of emotional intelligence, perceiving emotions, is the ability to detect and decipher emotions in faces, pictures, voices, and cultural artifacts.It also includes the ability to identify one's own emotions.Perceiving emotions may represent the most basic aspect of emotional intelligence, as it makes all other processing of emotional information possible [28].
Dulewicz and Higgs [11] define emotional intelligence as "awareness of emotions, control of relevant emotions, sustaining the power to resist these conditions under changing situations and state of consciousness directed to making sense of the feelings and thoughts of other individuals in more detail".
Emotional intelligence is achieved by mental balance.Emotional intelligence is an important factor in establishing a balance within the individual's life, as well as assisting in the approaches of positive thinking, offering solutions and considering environmental factors.Thus, it has a significant effect in revealing the current skills of the individual concerning self-conscience, being focused on success, problem solving skills and establishing effective communication with other people [15].Emotional intelligence also has a positive relationship with the concept of self-efficacy [4].
Emotional intelligence is a concept that can be developed over time.In this regard, emotional intelligence gains a place with experiences in time and it can be said to be nourished by the person's academic intelligence and reasoning skills [31].

Emotional Intelligence and Athletic Skills
In every sports activity, success depends on morphology, intellectual qualities and emotional characteristics of the athlete.Physiological and functional features, tactical knowledge and theoretical knowledge can be thought to form an equation with emotional intelligence [22].
Emotional intelligence and athletic skills affect each other.The levels of arousal and emotion control develop especially in sports fields that require fighting ambition [30].

Factors That Create Emotional Intelligence
Auto control, Motivation, Self-awareness, Empathy and Human Relations are five different concepts that have an effect on emergence of emotional intelligence.Among these, Empathy and self-awareness emerge as being the most important to determine the quality of the person's emotional intelligence, since these elements help the person to understand herself/himself and her/his environment [7].
Given that emotional intelligence begins with the individual and continues with the communication of the individual within the surrounding environment, the correct, positive and permanent steps taken by the individual to self-development will assist her/him to succeed in other aspects of their life [21].

Factors Affecting the Development Process of Emotional Intelligence
In the development of emotional intelligence, there are a number of factors that have an indirect impact that must be taken into consideration, investigated and tested.In general, the accepted factors which have an indirect effect on this development are follows [31] Age: The development of emotional intelligence is indirectly related to the progress of the individual's age and her/his experience obtained in the aging process.
Sex: The emotional structures of women and men differ considerably.
Family and Environment: The family environment in which the individual has grown up in and the culture adopted over time contribute to the development of personality and habits.
These three main factors directly affect the individual's efforts to develop their identity.Additionally, individual experiences over time also contribute to personal development.The cumulative effect these factors determine individual feelings, whereas emotional intelligence allows one to regulate and manage those feelings and perspectives [31].

Population and Sampling
Data for this study were obtained from randomly selected 305 participants among 985 students studying in Balıkesir University School of Physical Education and Sports in the 2018-2019 academic year.

Data Collection Techniques
This is a descriptive study.In the study, "Emotional Intelligence Inventory in Sports" developed by Schutte et al. [29], revised and adapted by Lane et al. [20] for use in sports with Turkish reliability and validity performed by Adiloğulları and Görgülü [1] was used.Data forms were distributed to students by the researcher before or after the class within 2018-2019 academic year and they were requested to fill the form carefully after making the necessary explanations and providing the required environment, then the forms were collected for evaluation.

Data Collection Tools
The study relied heavily on "Emotional Intelligence Inventory in Sports" developed by Schutte et al. [29] and revised and adapted by Lane et al. [20] for use in sports.The reliability and validity of Turkish version was performed by Adiloğulları and Görgülü [1] and presented to Turkish researchers as available.The inventory is composed of five sub-dimensions namely evaluating others' feelings (5 items), evaluating one's own feelings (3 items), regulating feelings (2 items), social skills (3 items) and using feelings (6 items).The emotional intelligence inventory in sports, composed of 19 items and 5 sub-dimensions, was applied to a total of 404 (age=20.80±2.17years) athletes.The sample was comprised of 157 women (age=20.10±1.95years) and 247 men (age=21.25±2.18years).The internal consistency coefficient of the scale by Adiloğulları and Görgülü was 0.91.A .05 level of significance was established when calculating statistical differences between groups in the study.Factor analysis was used to verify the emotional intelligence inventory.
Basic components and cyclic factor analysis method were used in the evaluation of emotional intelligence inventory.In this inventory, the distribution of 19 questions were evaluated by the sub-dimensions of "Evaluating others' feelings (5 items)", "Evaluating one's own feelings (3 items)", "Regulating feelings (2 items)", "Social skills (3 items)" and "Using feelings (6 items)".The suitability of the data for the factor analysis was assessed by the Bartlett test and the suitability of the size of the research group was evaluated by the Keizer-Meyer-Olkin coefficient.The internal consistency of the questionnaire was evaluated with Cronbach's Alpha coefficients obtained for each sub-dimension.

Statistical Analysis
About internal consistency we adopted the value α=0.927 as the reliability coefficient of the inventory.Anova test, Independent Samples t-test, Kruskal Wallis test, Jonckheere-Terpstra test were also used in data analysis.All statistical operations were performed with SPSS 22.0.Regarding Table 1, 43% of the participants are aged between 18 and 20, 45% are at the age group of 21-23, the majority are male (52%) and 44% are engaged in team sports.43% of the participants receive coaching training, 25% receive physical education and sports teaching and 33% receive sports management education while 27% is in the first grade, 30% is in the second grade, 22% is in the third grade and 21% is in the fourth grade.24% of the participants do sports for 1-5 years, 41% for 6-10 years and 19% for 11 years and more while 29% of them are elite for 1-5 years, 7% for 6-10 years and 1% for 11 years and more.

Results
Concerning Table 2, the difference between the mean attitude scores of fans towards the club image by the variable of marital status was found to be significant (p<0.05).It was ascertained that mean attitude scores of the single fans towards the club image (X =29.73) were significantly higher than the mean attitude scores of the married fans towards the club image (X =27.93).Factor load results obtained for each question are summarized in Table 3.The subtitles of the scale and mean, standard deviation and Cronbach's alpha values obtained for emotional intelligence inventory are summarized in Table 4.The inventory explains 68% of the total variance of emotional intelligence scale.The contribution of sub-dimensions of the scale to total variance was found to be 24% for evaluating others' feelings, 19% for evaluating one's own feelings, 10% for regulating feelings, 9% for social skills and 6% for using feelings.Anova test was applied to understand whether emotional intelligence inventory differed by age.Anova test was also used to determine whether there was a difference in the responses given to the Emotional Intelligence Inventory between ages.The main hypothesis of the analysis expressed that there is no difference between ages.Following the test, the probability value calculated (Sig) was found to be lower than 0.05 value except for one factor.The main hypothesis of this factor was be rejected.Apart from the factor of using feelings, other factors significantly differ by age.According to the findings obtained, the factor of evaluating others '  Independent Samples t-test were applied to understand whether emotional intelligence inventory differed by sex.Test results were used to determine whether there was a difference in the responses given to the Emotional Intelligence Inventory between sexes.The main hypothesis of the analysis expressed that there is no difference between groups.Following the test, the probability value calculated (Sig) was found to be higher than 0.05 value except for two factors.The main hypothesis of this factor was be rejected.The factors of evaluating others' feelings and regulating feelings significantly differ by sex.According to the findings obtained, the factor of evaluating others' feelings differed by sex.The highest mean values belonged to females.The factor of evaluating one's own feelings did not by sex.The factor of regulating feelings differed by sex.The female group had the highest mean values.The factor of social skills did not differ by sex.The factor of using feelings did not differ by sex.The Kruskal Wallis test was applied to understand whether emotional intelligence inventory differed by sports branches.Kruskal Wallis test results were used to determine whether there was a difference in the responses given to the Emotional Intelligence Inventory between sports branches.The main hypothesis of the analysis expressed that there was no difference between sports branches.Following the test, the probability value calculated (Sig) was found to be higher than 0.05 value except for two factors.The main hypotheses of two factors were rejected.The factors of social skills and using feelings significantly differ by the sports branch.According to the findings obtained, the factor of evaluating others' feelings did not differ by sports branch.The factor of evaluating one's own feelings did not differ by sports branch.The factor of regulating feelings did not differ by sports branch.The factor of social skills differs by sports branch.The mean value of social skills in the group of team sports was higher.The factor of using feelings did not differ by sports branch.The mean value of using feelings in the group of team sports as higher.
The Anova test was applied to understand whether emotional intelligence inventory differed by departments.Anova test was used to determine whether there was a difference in the responses given to the Emotional Intelligence Inventory between departments.The main hypothesis of the analysis expressed that there was no difference between departments.Following the test, the probability value calculated (Sig) was found to be higher than 0.05 value except for two factors.The main hypotheses of these two factors was rejected.
The factors of evaluating others' feelings and social skills significantly differ by department.According to the findings obtained, the factor of evaluating others' feelings differs by departments.The mean value of evaluating others' feelings was higher in the group studying sports management.The factor of evaluating one's own feelings did not differ by department.The factor of regulating feelings did not differ by department.The factor of social skills differs by department.The group studying coaching training had higher mean values of social skills.The factor of using feelings did not differ by department.The Jonckheere-Terpstra test was applied to understand whether emotional intelligence inventory differed by grades.Jonckheere-Terpstra test results were used to determine whether there was a difference in the responses given to the Emotional Intelligence Inventory between grades.The main hypothesis of the analysis expressed that there was no difference between grades.Following the test, the probability value calculated (Sig) was found to be higher than 0.05 value except for one factor.The main hypothesis of this one factor was rejected.The factor of evaluating others' feelings significantly differs by grade.According to the findings obtained, the factor of evaluating others' feelings differs by grades.The mean value of evaluating others' feelings was higher in the 2 nd grades.The factor of evaluating one's own feelings did not differ by grades.The factor of regulating feelings did not differ by grades.The factor of social skills did not differ by grades.The factor of using feelings differs by grades.

Discussion
The purpose of this study was to compare the demographic attributes and emotional intelligence levels of students studying in different departments of Balıkesir University School of Physical Education and Sports in the 2018-2019 academic year.
Analyzing the emotional intelligence levels by the variable of age, it was observed that the factor values of using feelings and regulating feelings were the highest in 27+ age group.This result indicated that the individuals newly entering into adulthood use and regulate their feelings better.The factor of evaluating one's own feelings was the highest in 24-26 age group.In the study of Adiloğulları [3] and Adiloğulları et al. [2] performed on teachers, it was stated that as age increases, the higher emotional intelligence levels become.In the literature, this shows parallelism with the thesis of Roitman [26], Dal [9] and Goleman [14] "emotional intelligence presents a lifelong development".As a person matures and self-awareness increases, emotional intelligence also develops.This circumstance is best explained by the fact that as a person progresses through life experiences one is better able to adapt and respond more realistically in the face of the events [16].In the previous studies, significant differences were also found between age and emotional intelligence levels and emotional intelligence was stated to increase together with age [8,13,10,17].
Analyzing the emotional intelligence skills by the variable of sex, it was observed that the factors of evaluating others' feelings and regulating feelings are higher in women.The fact that female participants have higher emotional intelligence averages than male participants has been explained with the notion women have different genetic characteristics and therefore attach more importance and significance to emotions [23].Similar results have been obtained in the relevant literature [16].Emotional intelligence scores of women have been found to be higher than men [12,5,13,17].
Analyzing the emotional intelligence levels by the variable of sports branch, the factors of social skills and using feelings were observed to be higher in athletes doing team sports.Team sports help individuals be more socialized, communicate with people better, stand firmly while losing, create a team spirit and cooperate [27].Thus, the athletes doing team sports are better at the dimensions of social skills and using feelings.The findings obtained are supported with relevant literature [25].
Analyzing the factor of evaluating others' feelings by the variable of department studied, the averages were observed to be higher in those studying sports management compared to other departments.Analyzing the factor of social skills by the department studied, the averages were observed to be higher in those studying coaching training compared to other departments.High averages of social skills belonging to the students studying coaching training indicate that students studying in this department are self-confident, friendly and social individuals who act in accordance with the environment in social situations, can interpret the feelings of others accurately and fully, are able to empathize, have the skills of initiating and directing conversations in any matter.This result complies with the study conducted by Avşar [6].
Analyzing the emotional intelligence skills by the variable of grade, the factor of evaluating others' feelings was observed to be higher in the 2 nd grade students compared to other grades.Emotional intelligence was expected to improve together with age and education received in higher grades.Our findings were not by other studies identified in the literature [18,19].

Conclusions
In conclusion, significant differences among participants were identified when comparing emotional intelligence levels and the dimensions of age, sex, sports branch, grade and department.Emotional intelligence levels differed in favor of the 27+ age group, the 24-26 age group and the 2 nd grade students engaged in team sports and studying sports management and coaching.

Table 1 .
Descriptive Statistics of the Participants

Table 3 .
Factor Loads Regarding Scale Items

Table 4 .
Reliability Statistics

Table 5 .
Total Variance Analysis Results of the Scale

Table 6 .
Anova Test Results Regarding the Variable of Age feelings differs by age.The mean values of 27+ age group were the highest and 18-20 age group had the lowest values.The factor of evaluating one's own feelings differs by age.The 24-26 age group had the highest mean value while 18-20 age group had the lowest mean values.The factor of regulating feelings differs by age.27+ age group had the highest mean value while the lowest mean values belonged to the 18-20 age group.The factor of social skills differs by age.27+ age group had the highest mean value while the lowest mean values belonged to the 18-23 age group.The factor of using feelings did not differ by age.

Table 7 .
Descriptive Analyses Regarding the Variable of Age

Table 8 .
Independent t-test Results by the Variable of Sex

Table 9 .
Descriptive Analyses for the Variable of Sex

Table 10 .
Kruskal Wallis Test Results by the Sports Branch Results

Table 11 .
Descriptive Analyses regarding the Variable of Sports Branch

Table 12 .
ANOVA Test Results regarding the Variable of Department

Table 13 .
Descriptive Analysis Results regarding the Variable of Department

Table 14 .
Jonckheere -Terpstra Test Results regarding the Variable of Grades

Table 15 .
Descriptive Analyses regarding the Variable of Grade