Emotional intelligence and motor competence in children, adolescents, and young adults

ABSTRACT

This study's purpose was to explore the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and motor competence (MC) in 540 children, adolescents, and young adults. Using the Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Scale (SSEIT), participants were divided in three groups of high, average, and low EI. The short form of Bruininks–Oseretsky Test for Motor Proficiency – 2 (BOTMP-2SF) evaluated MC. Within each age and sex group, associations between MC and a) EI as a global construct and b) the four subdomains of EI were overall significant (with p < .01 for 85 out of 90 correlations) and very strong (with 66 correlations > .60). A 3 (EI groups) x 3 (age groups) x 2 (sex) ANOVA on standardized overall MC scores revealed that in all age groups, participants with higher EI outperformed their peers with average and low EI with respect to MC (p < .001). Additionally, boys scored higher on MC tests compared to girls (p < .001). A third-order interaction effect (p < .001) revealed that boys’ superiority in MC generally decreased from childhood to adulthood, especially in the low EI group. The outcomes of this study show a robust relationship between EI and MC from childhood through early adulthood, suggesting a novel MC correlate throughout the lifespan.

KEYWORDS:

• Motor proficiency
• motor skill
• age
• development

Acknowledgments

This paper is based on a research project which has been done by spiritual aids of research affairs at (Blinded for Reviewers).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to restrictions their containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants.