Examination of the Relationship Between Competitive State Anxiety and Emotional Intelligence and Their Effects on Performance in Badminton Players

This study aimed to examine the effect of emotional intelligence on the competitive state anxiety levels of senior and junior badminton players, and whether competitive state anxiety levels and emotional intelligence traits in both senior and junior categories affect their performance. This study consists of 59 senior and 44 junior national badminton players who participated in international junior and senior badminton tournaments. The Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 and the Schutte Emotional Intelligence Scale were used for the psychometric evaluation of the participants. The participants’ performance measurements were obtained from statistical results of interna-tional badminton tournaments. Correlation analysis showed a significant negative relationship between optimism and cognitive and somatic anxiety, and a significant positive relationship between optimism and self-confidence. Results also revealed a negative relationship between appraisal of emotions and cognitive and somatic anxiety, and a significant positive relationship between appraisal of emotions and self-confidence. Results indicated a significant negative relationship between the utilization of emotions and somatic anxiety. In examining the relationship be-tween emotional intelligence traits, competitive state anxiety, and performance, a significant positive relationship was found between optimism and performance. Linear regression analyses also indicated that the regression models consisting of emotional intelligence sub-dimensions could explain a significant amount of variance of sub-scales of competitive state anxiety, which are somatic anxiety, cognitive anxiety, and self-confidence. In line with these results, we can conclude that emotional intelligence is a positive predictor of anxiety regulation and self-confidence.