Emotional regulation and self-perceived quality of life in high-performance mountain sports athletes

Abstract

Emotional regulation is an indispensable capacity for human beings, so that alterations in it can lead to the appearance of psychological, social and/or cognitive disorders. Therefore, possessing adequate emotional strategies is intimately related to the quality of life that a person presents. In this sense, high-level athletes suffer constant setbacks and frustrations due to the performance of their sporting activity, in addition to continuous modifications of their daily life activities. Thus, the objective of this research is to explore the emotional regulation and self-perceived quality of life of high-level athletes in mountain sports, analyzing the possible influences of gender, demographic location, body mass index and age. Fifty-four athletes belonging to the High Performance Technification Center of Cáceres (Extremadura, Spain) completed a sociodemographic questionnaire, as well as the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and the WHOQOL-BREF. The Shapiro–Wilkins test was used to analyze the normality of the variables collected and nonparametric statistics were used since the assumption was not met. Both gender and demographic location showed significant differences in the dimensions of the two questionnaires. Likewise, age was associated with the dimensions of both scales, but not body mass index, which was only associated with self-perceived quality of life. In addition, the stepwise linear regression model predicted self-perceived quality of life with a value of 60% across self-culpability, gender body mass index and planning. Therefore, it appears that gender, demographic location, age and body mass index could exert modifications on the levels of emotional regulation and self-perceived quality of life of high-level mountain athletes.