Emotional intelligence in Physical Education students

Abstract

Emotional intelligence is defined as the ability to know and master one’s and/or others' emotions. The objectives of this study were to validate an emotional intelligence instrument in a sample of physical education students from Chile, and to describe the emotional skills of the sample. 226 physical education students from two universities in Santiago de Chile were evaluated. The Emotional Metacognition Trait Scale (TMMS-24) was applied. The results reveal that the instrument, reduced to 19 items, presents three factors that explain 56,8% of the total variance, with a Cronbach alpha of 0,916. In relation to the levels of emotional intelligence, the sample presents high values, without there being significant differences in the dimension’s clarity, attention, and repair of the TMMS-24 between women and men. When comparing years of career, there are only differences in the clarity dimension, where 5th year students had higher scores than/as 2nd years. It is concluded that physical education students have high rates of emotional intelligence, with no differences between women and men.