Emotional Intelligence and Adjustment of Sports persons

The demand for adjustment is universal to all human beings and characterized by uniqueness, dynamicity, pervasiveness and indispensability. The processes and mechanisms of adjustment entail factors associated with the personal attributes of the individuals, socio-cultural milieu and genetic endowment which determine its exact nature, extent and quality. The sports relationship is unique and places a different type of demand on the part of sportspersons. Out of many stake holders of adjustment in the field of sports and games, the emotions play a pivotal role. The present research attempted to spell out the impact of emotional intelligence and gender in shaping the adjustment of the sportspersons. The study employed four hundred sportspersons with equal number of males and females as participants whose emotional intelligence and adjustment were measured through standardized psychometric tools. The results evinced that male and female differed in their four components and overall mean scores of emotional intelligence. The female participants evinced higher mean emotional intelligence score as compared to their male counterparts as well as on intrapersonal awareness and intrapersonal management dimensions of emotional intelligence. Contrarily, there were no gender differences on interpersonal awareness and interpersonal management dimensions emotional intelligence. In addition, the scores of emotional intelligence showed statistically significant positive correlations with all the four areas of adjustment such as home adjustment, health adjustment, social adjustment and emotional. The results have been discussed in the light of current theories of emotional intelligence and adjustment. The conclusions of the study have important theoretical and practical implications for the academicians, administrators, sportspersons, researchers of other professional associated with sports field and  policy maker.