Emotional intelligence and coping skills among Indian cricketers

Pages: 796-799
Hamsini Sivaramakrishnan and K. Jayanthi Rani (Department of Psychology, Ethiraj College for Women, Chennai, Tamil Nadu)

Emotional Intelligence is an important factor to consider in team sports due to the degree of interaction between teammates. Coping skills provide an insight into the ability of an individual to handle various circumstances on and off the field. The present study aims to investigate the relationship between Emotional Intelligence and coping skills among Indian cricketers as well as the gender difference for these variables. The tools used in this study are Athletic Coping Skills Inventory (ACSI-28) by Smith, Schutz, Smoll, and Ptacek (1995) and the Emotional Intelligence Scale by Hyde, Pethe, and Dhar (2007). The sample consists of 100 Indian cricketers (50 males & 50 females) who represented their state in the year 2017-2018 and was chosen using purposive sampling method. Pearson’s coefficient of correlation and t-test was used to compute the statistics. The results indicate significant relationships between Emotional Intelligence and coping skills and also between Emotional Intelligence and resilience. A significant gender difference in the levels of coping skills was also obtained. However, no significant gender difference was found for Emotional Intelligence.