Emotional intelligence and the practice of organized physical-sport activity in children.

Abstract

Taking into account Bar-On’s postulations about social-emotional intelligence, the aim of the current work is to find out the differences in the five dimensions of this intelligence between children that practice organized sport and those children that do not practice it at the elementary school level. Method: A randomly selected sample of 940 children from elementary schools, ranging in age from 6 to 12 years old, attending different schools from the Autonomous Community of Extremadura (Spain), was used. Results: The results showed that children who practiced organized sport had better abilities at the intrapersonal and interpersonal level, better adaptability and mood states, and greater emotional intelligence than those who did not. The findings regarding gender and age indicated greater values in girls of emotional intelligence, highlighting the interpersonal dimension, as well as mood state scores, whereas younger children showed greater intrapersonal intelligence and less stress management. Moreover, children who practiced for three or more hours per day had a greater ability to cope with stress than those children who practiced for fewer hours a day. Conclusions: To conclude, it is important to promote federative sport practice in elementary education in order to ensure that children learn to better regulate and manage their emotions.