Emotional Intelligence and Resilience: Predictors of Life Satisfaction among Mountain Trainers

Abstract

High-level performance in mountain sports would be unlikely unless different emotional factors are taken into account through the analysis of psychological characteristics, such as mood, resilience, or motivation, among many other variables. In this study, 788 people with a sports degree from the Spanish Federation of Mountain Sports and Climbing (FEDME) participated, 75.3% of whom were men and 24.5% of whom were women. The mean age of the participants was 49.8 years (±12.8), ranging from 18 to 76 years. The Wong Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS-S), the RS-14 Resilience Scale, and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) instruments were used. The aim of this research was to determine the relationship between the dimensions of emotional intelligence, resilience, and life satisfaction. The results showed a relationship between several of the dimensions from the instruments used (p < 0.01). In terms of gender, higher scores were found for women than for men. The regression model shows that both the dimensions of emotional intelligence [appraisal of own emotions (β = 0.104; p < 0.001); use of emotions (β = 0.30; p < 0.001); emotional regulation (β = 0.103; p < 0.001)] and resilience [personal competence (β = 0.402; p < 0.001)] are predictors of greater life satisfaction, positively explained by the regression model with 44.1% accuracy. Further proposals should extend the results obtained to the analysis of more sports modalities to provide evidence that would complement those extracted in this research.