NEWS RELEASE – May 29, 2008

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2008 SIRC Africa Research Award - Winner Announced

The SIRC Africa Research Award recognizes outstanding sport research in Africa. Acknowledging how sport research benefits the African sporting community is the primary purpose of this award. Congratulations to all who participated.

“We are pleased to recognize the outstanding sport research being done in Africa. Sport plays an important role in developing both social and academic goals. Our international panel of judges was pleased to review the diversity and quality of the research papers submitted.” Debra Gassewitz, President and CEO SIRC

And the award goes to…

“Effect of a Six-Week Emotional Intelligence Programme on the Sports Performance of Amateur Athletes in Oyo State of Nigeria” – Michael Adeniyi Ajayi, PhD and Layi Fatokun – University of Ibadan

Abstract: Emotional intelligence (EI) has been reported to be more realistic than other measures in evaluating performances in many fields of human activities. However, research evidences reveal that its application to amateur athletes and its' possible effectiveness in enhancing sports performances is yet unknown. This study therefore investigated the effectiveness of emotional intelligence programme on the performances of amateur athletes from selected sports in Oyo State of Nigeria.

The pretest, posttest randomized control group quasi-experimental design was adopted for the study. The fish-bowl method of the simple random, sampling technique was used to select four sports, which include basketball, handball, volleyball and weightlifting. The modified Emotional Competence Inventory Version 2 (ECI-2) (α=0.8 and the Emotional Competence Development Module -Sports Version (ECDM-SPORTS) (α =0.79) were administered to 92 male and female amateur athletes whose ages ranged between 18 and 25. The experimental groups were exposed to six weeks of emotional competence training using the ECDM-Sports programme. Two hypotheses were tested at significant level of O.05. The data were analyzed using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA).

The results revealed significant difference in (El) posttest (Exp.x= 196.20; Control x= 186.98) (P< 0.05). Further, the treated group consequently performed better in the sports performance posttest (x=66.19) than the control group (x=52.30) (P<0.05). Results further indicated no significant difference in the El and sports performance scores between the sports groups that were treated (P>0.05). This showed that the amateur athletes from all the sports groups equally utilized and benefited from the treatment programmes.

Bio: Dr. Ajayi has a Ph.D. in Sport Psychology from the University of Ibadan. He is a senior lecturer with the Department of Human Kinetics and Health Education at the University of Ibadan. Dr. Ajayi is the Secretary-Genreal for the Sport Psychology Association of Nigeria.

Mr. Fatokun has an M.Ed degree in sociology and psychology of sports from the University of Ibadan and is currently a Ph.D. student of sports psychology at the University of Ibadan. Mr. Fatokun is a referee for the International Weightlifting Federation and was Chairman of the Nigerian Weightlifting Referees Association until 2005.

To read the winning research paper click on the title above.

Invitation to submit papers for the 2009 SIRC Africa Research will be announced in September 2008

 

Contact :

Kim Cook SIRC Tel : +1 (613) 231-7472, Ext 243 Toll Free: +1 (800) 665-6413 North America Fax: +1 (613) 231-3739

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