Perceptual and Motor Skills, 2010, 110, 1, 323-338. © Perceptual and Motor Skills 2010 DOI 10.2466/PMS.110.1.323-338 ISSN 0031-5125 1 Address correspondence to Frank Jing-Horng Lu, Graduate Institute of Physical Education, National Taiwan Sport University, #250, Wen-Hua First Rd., Kweishan, Taoyuan, Taiwan or e-mail (jlu@mail.ntsu.edu.tw). RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ATHLETES’ EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND PRECOMPETITIVE ANXIETY 1 FRANK J-H. LU National Taiwan Sport University GLADYS SHUK-FONG LI National Chung Cheng University EVA YA-WEN HSU National Taiwan Sport University LAVON WILLIAMS Guildford College Summary.—This study examined the relationship between athletes’ Emotional Intelligence (EI) and precompetitive anxiety. Taiwanese intercollegiate track and feld athletes (N = 111; 64 men, 47 women) completed the Bar-On EQ-i 1 mo. before a national intercollegiate athletic meet, and the Competition State Anxiety Inventory– 2R 1 hr. before the competition. Analyses indicated that participants with the lowest EI scores reported greater intensity of precompetitive cognitive anxiety than those with the highest EI scores. No other statistically signifcant diferences were found among the groups. Further, correlational analyses and multiple stepwise regression analyses revealed that EI components such as stress management, intrapersonal EI, and interpersonal EI were associated with precompetitive anxiety. Current EI mea- sures provide limited understanding of precompetitive anxiety. A sport-specifc EI measure is needed for future research. Emotional Intelligence (EI), “a set of abilities that involve the way in which people perceive, express, understand, and manage their own emo- tions as well as the emotions of others” (Cherniss, 2004, p. 315), has re- cently atracted atention in sport and mainstream psychology (e.g., Zizzi, Deaner, & Hirschhorn, 2003; Alkhadher, 2007; Magyar, Guivernau, Gano- Overway, Newton, Kim, Watson, et al., 2007; Meyer & Fletcher, 2007; Li, Lu, & Wang, 2009). EI was introduced into the academic literature in the 1980s as a key variable in the study of emotion (Payne, 1986) and popu- larized in the book Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Mater More Than IQ (Goleman, 1995). According to Goleman, individuals’ emotional aware- ness, control, and management are more important than IQ to their suc- cess, achievements, relationships, and health. Although the concept of EI is intuitively intriguing and may be useful for explaining behavior, researchers have struggled to come to a consensus about the operational defnition of EI. Diferent EI theorists have diferent models and defnitions of the construct when conducting their studies, but with considerable overlap among them. To date, three theoretical approaches have been used as the guiding framework for studying EI