Relationships between Informal Sports Leadership and Emotional Intelligence: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Sports leadership research has increased in recent years in sport psychology and is now considered an indication of variables such as sport efficacy, satisfaction and happiness with sport, and emotional well-being. The aim of this manuscript is to analyze the relationship between informal sports leadership and each of the dimensions of emotional intelligence. Two validated and standardized instruments were applied to measure each of the psychological constructs, respectively, that make up the thematic axis of this research. Thus, to measure self-perceived leadership, we used the Sport Leadership Behavioral Scale and its Spanish version, the Sport Leadership Behavioral Inventory. On the other hand, to measure the self-perceived emotional intelligence of the participants, we used the Trait Meta Mood Scale (TMMS-24). The total number of participants was 163 students with a mean age of 20.33 years (SD = 3.44) from university degrees related to physical activity and sport sciences. The main contribution of our research lies in the demonstration that there is a statistically significant relationship between clarity and emotional regulation with empathy (=0.18, p < 0.001), decision making (=0.08, p < 0.001), social support l (=0.19, p < 0.001) and sports values (=0.01, p < 0.001). This indicates that the definition of a leader is a person who is aware of their own emotions and those of their group, who fosters positive, communicative, supportive inter-relationships based on sporting values, through the exercise of a positive influence on the other members of the group. In conclusion, this research demonstrates the existence of a significant connection between the components of emotional intelligence (attention, clarity and regulation) and sports leadership (social support, empathy, sports values, decision making and task orientation). Thus, this study concludes that this link is characterized by being direct and positive.