The Impact of Emotional Intelligence, Depression, Anxiety, and Stress on Overall Performance of Football Players in Pakistan

Abstract

Due to the mental strain that sports can cause, athletes are more susceptible to psychological problems including depression and burnout.  It is believed that one of the key factors influencing whether these difficulties are lessened or made worse is emotional intelligence (EI), or the ability to confront and control emotions.  In this study, an assortment of professional and amateur soccer players in Pakistan were used to examine the connections between EI, psychological health issues (such as stress, anxiety, and depression), and athlete performance. The study employed a cross-sectional research design, and comprised 105 professional and semi-professional football players in Pakistan who participated in the study. Convenient sampling was used for the collection of data via the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21), Emotional Intelligence (EI) scale (the Trait Meta-Mood Scale-TMMS), and Athlete Performance Questionnaire (ASQ). Analyses included Pearson’s correlation and regression. The study's results showed that psychological distress factors including depression, anxiety, and stress were highly and positively correlated with each other, confirming they often occur together. Importantly, these specific measures of distress were found to be only weakly related to Emotional Intelligence (EI). Conversely, EI demonstrated a moderate to strong association with athlete performance. Furthermore, a regression analysis established EI as a significant positive predictor of athlete performance, explaining 26% of its variance (R² =.26), where a one-unit increase in EI was associated with a 1.76-unit increase in performance (β =.51, p <.001). These findings underscore the importance of emotional intelligence as a key factor in enhancing football players' performance by mitigating the adverse effects of psychological distress.

Keywords. Emotional Intelligence, Depression, Anxiety, Stress, Football Player Performance