coach athlete relationship dissertation

Trust and Communication pp 273–293 Cite as

Trust Within the Coach–Athlete Relationship Through Digital Communication

• Sydney Querfurth-Böhnlein 2 ,
• Linda Schücker 2 &
• Bernd Strauss 2  
• First Online: 03 July 2021

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1 Citations

The coach–athlete relationship is one of the most important relationships in an athlete’s life. Trust is one essential element that is characteristic of a good coach–athlete relationship and is built and maintained at least partly through communication. With new emerging technologies and apps, the ways in which coach and athlete communicate are changing, from strictly face-to-face settings, to more digital communication through apps, websites, and other technologies. With this emerging trend, it becomes necessary to examine the role the technology plays in the development of trust in coach, as well as the role the technology itself plays. The following chapter discusses the constructs of trust in coach, trust in technology, as well as trust through technology, proposes an integrated model of these constructs, and provides initial empirical validation for the proposed model. Implications both for practice and further research are discussed.

• Coach–athlete relationship
• Digital communication
• Digital training technology

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Querfurth-Böhnlein, S., Schücker, L., Strauss, B. (2021). Trust Within the Coach–Athlete Relationship Through Digital Communication. In: Blöbaum, B. (eds) Trust and Communication. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-72945-5_14

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Library Dissertation Showcase

Coach-athlete relationship, social support, and sport-related psychological well-being in ncaa division i student-athletes.

• Eadie E Simons
• Sport & Exercise Science
• Year of Publication:
• BSc (Hons) Sport and Exercise Science

The coach-athlete relationship and social support have been highlighted as key organisational stressors that impact athlete’s well-being. However, this relationship is mainly cited in relation to burnout rather than psychological wellbeing as a whole. Recent evidence suggests that individual sport athletes have a greater prevalence of mental health concerns compared to team sport athletes (Nixdorf et al., 2016; Pluhar et al., 2019). Their results also showed differences in the stressors experienced between sport types. The first aim of this study was to further our knowledge of the relationships between social support, coach-athlete relationship and psychological well-being. Additionally, the study aimed to investigate the impact of sport type on the aforementioned variables. In a cross-sectional study, 153 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I student athletes (Mage 19.46, SD = 1.49) completed questionnaires on coach-athlete relationship, social support and sport-related well-being. Spearman’s rank order correlations indicate that, as hypothesised, coach-athlete relationship and social support were both positively correlated with well-being. Weak to moderate correlations were found between all subscales of coach-athlete relationship, social support, and well-being. Separate one-way multivariate analysis of variance tests (MANOVA’s) found that there were no significant differences between sport type on all outcome variables. The results of this study provide an understanding of the roles of coach-athlete relationship and social support on sport-related well-being. This may influence future coaching practices and procedures within university athletic departments, thus positively impacting student athletes’ well-being.

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Thriving through relationships in sport: the role of the parent–athlete and coach–athlete attachment relationship.

• 1 Department of Psychology, Umeå School of Sports Science, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden
• 2 School of Sport, Health and Exercise Science, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, United Kingdom
• 3 Department for Health, University of Bath, Bath, United Kingdom
• 4 Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Karlstad University, Karlstad, Sweden
• 5 Department of Sport and Social Sciences, Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Oslo, Norway

The aim of this research was to examine whether attachment relationships to significant others, such as to parents and/or sports coaches, enable thriving and competition performance within sport. Two studies employing cross-sectional and prospective designs were carried out across different samples of athletes of varied skill levels and sports. In Study 1, we found athletes’ attachment to their sports coach was significantly associated with athlete thriving and mediated by psychological needs satisfaction. Results of Study 2 found that athletes’ secure attachment to their mother and/or father positively predicted the experience of thriving at the competition while athletes’ insecure attachment did not predict thriving. Furthermore, athletes’ attachment to both mother and father did not predict competition performance. Together, these two studies acknowledge the significant role that athletes’ secure attachment relationships with parents and coaches play in facilitating thriving in athletes. These findings have significant implications for research and practice.

Introduction

Sport performers encounter a variety of stressors, hassles, and adversities as part of their involvement in competitive sport, with responses to such demands having powerful effects not only on sporting performances but also on athletic well-being ( Jones and Hardy, 1990 ; Arnold and Fletcher, 2021 ). Despite academic literature seeking to examine, understand, and promote both performance and well-being, recent media coverage indicates that an unrelenting need to succeed within the realms of elite sport can create detrimental and harmful environments where performance and results are given priority at the expense of athletic welfare ( Grey-Thompson, 2017 ; Phelps et al., 2017 ; Brown et al., 2021b ; Kavanagh et al., 2021 ). This focus also appears to be evident in youth sport, with reports illustrating concerning numbers of young people experiencing emotional harm or child abuse while taking part in sport ( Hartill and Lang, 2018 ). Therefore, a pressing and important issue in contemporary sport is how performance can be enhanced while simultaneously optimizing well-being within highly demanding environments.

In support of the growing calls to protect athlete well-being in the pursuit of performance ( Arnold and Fletcher, 2021 ) and the subsequent re-stating and development of welfare policies ( Kavanagh et al., 2021 ), scholars have begun to pursue an agenda toward the promotion of thriving in sport ( Brown et al., 2021b ). Thriving describes the concurrent perception of a high-level of performance and experience of high levels of well-being within a specific sporting encounter (e.g., a match; Brown et al., 2020a ) or an overall perception of high levels on both dimensions over a sustained period (e.g., a month; Brown et al., 2017b ; see also, Brown et al., 2018 ). Given the subjective nature of perceptions and experiences, the occurrence of thriving is understood from the viewpoint of an individual evaluating one’s own functioning (e.g., do I perceive that I performed at a high-level in today’s match?). As such, the construct of thriving has been qualitatively explored via the lived experiences of individuals operating in sport (see, e.g., Brown and Arnold, 2019 ) and quantitatively identified via their self-reported accounts on performance and well-being dimensions (see, e.g., Brown et al., 2017b ; McNeill et al., 2018 ). When researching thriving in sport, it has been important for scholars to recognize the full and holistic nature of thriving (see, Brown et al., 2017a ; Ryan and Deci, 2017 ), whereby the participants would be expected to demonstrate high levels across multiple, context-relevant functioning indicators to be labeled as thriving ( Brown et al., 2020b ). Quantitatively, this has been evidenced through the work of Brown et al. (2017b) who conducted factor mixture analysis to determine the shape and level of functioning profiles with a sample of 535 sport performers. Their results demonstrated no shape effects with performers reporting comparable perceptions on subjective performance, eudaimonic well-being, and hedonic well-being measures, ranging from high (i.e., thriving) to low levels. When combined with the wider evidence from McNeill et al. (2018) , Brown et al. (2020a) , and Rouquette et al. (2021) , these findings suggest that proxies for functioning can be modeled with a single, global factor (i.e., functioning/thriving).

Within the initial work on thriving, researchers have identified various psychosocial variables associated with its occurrence. Adopting the categorization offered by Brown et al. (2017a) , these variables can be broadly categorized as personal (i.e., individual attitudes, cognitions, and behaviors) and contextual (i.e., environmental characteristics and social agents) enablers. Examples of personal enablers of thriving in sport have included desire and motivation, goal setting and creating challenge, positive mental state, self-belief, mental toughness, self-regulation, and personal resilient qualities ( Brown et al., 2017b , 2018 ; Gucciardi et al., 2017 ; McNeill et al., 2018 ). Turning to contextual enablers, these have included the depth and sincerity of relationships and the support that can be provided by coaches, support staff, parents, and colleagues/teammates ( Harris et al., 2012 ; Brown et al., 2017b ; Gucciardi et al., 2017 ; Brown and Arnold, 2019 ). Further research is, however, required on the relationship between contextual enablers and thriving in sport, given that Brown et al. (2017b) contrastingly found that perceived social support, coach need support, and coach need thwart variables could not significantly predict sport performers’ membership to a thriving profile.

One contextual enabler that is of particular interest in future enquiries is a sport performer’s attachment to significant others, such as to their parents and/or coaches. Outside of sport, research has found that interpersonal relationships built on secure attachments can act as a contextual enabler for thriving across the lifespan (see, e.g., Haynes et al., 1984 ; Carver, 1998 ; Feeney and Collins, 2015a , b ). Indeed, Feeney and Collins (2015a , b) present a model of thriving which, rooted in and providing advances to attachment theory ( Bowlby, 1969/1982 ), positions relationships as central for enabling thriving through two life contexts. These are: successfully coping with adversity (by helping to strengthen as well as protect) and participating in opportunities for growth in the absence of adversity (with support providers serving as active catalysts for thriving). Given these empirical links found outside of the sports context and the aforementioned importance of promoting thriving in sport, it is critical that future research investigates attachment as a contextual enabler of athletic thriving.

The term “attachment” refers to an individual’s ongoing emotional bond with a significant figure (usually the mother or a significant caregiver) upon whom s/he has learned to rely on for protection and care ( Bowlby, 1969/1982 ). Differences in the ability of a child to signal the need and desire for closeness, as well as differences in a caregiver’s responsiveness to the needs of their child, produce variations in what Ainsworth et al. (1978) labeled attachment styles . Alongside of which, a set of knowledge structures or internal working models (IWMs) are formed that are cumulative representations of the self (child) and of significant others (caregivers). Based on Bowlby’s theories, Ainsworth et al. (1978) identified three styles of child attachment: secure, anxious ambivalent, and avoidant. When a parent demonstrates availability, is sensitive to signals of distress, and responsive when called upon for protection and/or comfort, a secure attachment style is developed. The IWM of a secure individual includes trust in the caregiver and confidence in the availability and provision of support should the individual encounter adverse or frightening situations. With this assurance, secure individuals are generally bold in their explorations of their environments as they are able to rely on themselves and others when needed; they are also comfortable with relational closeness. An anxious ambivalent attachment style is developed when a caregiver is inconsistent in their availability, reassurance, and providing protection and/or comfort (e.g., being available and supportive on some occasions and not on others). The IWM of an anxious individual includes uncertainty as to whether the caregiver will be available, responsive, or supportive when called upon. Due to this uncertainty, an anxious individual has a lack of trust in their caregiver, a fear of rejection, and a strong need for relational closeness ( Cassidy, 1994 ). Lastly, when a caregiver constantly rejects a child when s/he approaches for comfort and/or protection, an avoidant attachment style is developed. The IWM of an avoidant individual includes negative self-evaluations and a lack of confidence that their caregiver will be accessible and responsive when called upon. On the contrary, they expect to be rejected and the importance of caregiver availability is minimized and relational closeness is avoided ( Cassidy, 1994 ).

Research on parent–child attachment has been conducted across a variety of domains (e.g., familial, social/friendships, education, sport; Zimmermann, 2004 ; Ramsdal et al., 2015 ) and at different phases of a lifespan (e.g., infancy, childhood, adolescence). A secure attachment is considered important for the development of positive social–emotional competence, cognitive functioning as well as good physical and mental health including well-being ( Mónaco et al., 2019 ). In general, previous research has found those with insecure attachments to be more at risk from developing negative outcomes and ill health ( Gillath et al., 2016 ).

In relation to the context of sport, studies that have focused on the parent–child attachment relationship have investigated links with engagement and motivation for physical activity, physical self-concept ( Ullrich-French et al., 2011 ; Li et al., 2016 ) as well as the development of sporting friendships ( Carr, 2009 ). Collectively these studies have demonstrated a strong positive link between mother and father secure attachment and motivation for physical activity as well as positive links to athletes’ physical self-perception ( Ullrich-French et al., 2011 ; Li et al., 2016 ). Furthermore, Carr (2009) found that attachment to parents played a significant role in influencing how sporting friendships were formed within the context of sport. On the contrary, across all studies, attachment insecurity was notably most detrimental to these outcomes. Notwithstanding these associations, parent–athlete attachment is yet to be shown to influence sport performance and no previous studies have examined the relationship with thriving in sport.

In addition to influencing child–parent relationships, once developed, IWMs act as a prototype and play an important role in shaping close relationships and can guide the formation of future attachments including those with leaders, teachers, friends, and sports coaches ( Collins and Read, 1990 ; Bergin and Bergin, 2009 ; Mayseless, 2010 ; Davis and Jowett, 2014 ). That said, across these relationships a person’s IWMs may undergo revision or be replaced when changes occur in parental caregiving ( Egeland and Farber, 1984 ) or when a person has a corrective experience, such as the development of a supportive and sensitive relationship. Not all people interact in the same way and thus, it is possible to have working models and attachment styles that reflect the nuances connected with different relationships ( Overall et al., 2003 ). For instance, individuals can hold a set of representations for relationships with parents, and another set of representations for their peers ( Gillath et al., 2016 ).

In recent years, this framework has begun to examine contextual relationships in sport beyond the parent–child relationship including the coach–athlete relationship and sport friendships ( Carr, 2009 ; Felton and Jowett, 2013 ; Davis and Jowett, 2014 ). With regard to the coach–athlete relationship, Davis and Jowett (2010) argue that coaches can take on a “stronger and wiser” role by providing support, advice, guidance, and comfort as well as encouraging exploration and risk-taking behaviors, similar to the role of parents. On this premise, Davis and Jowett (2010) found coaches to fulfil the basic functions of attachment (i.e., proximity maintenance, safe haven, secure base) essential for an attachment relationship to occur ( Hazan and Shaver, 1994 ). Specifically, athletes reported turning to their coach during times of need, seeking a level of closeness with their coach, and relying on them to explore and discover aspects of their sporting environment. Based on this initial evidence, Jowett and colleagues investigated links between coach–athlete attachment and athlete’s affective well-being ( Felton and Jowett, 2013 ; Davis and Jowett, 2014 ), sport satisfaction ( Davis and Jowett, 2010 , relationship quality ( Davis et al., 2013 ), and eating psychopathology ( Shanmugam et al., 2011 ). Findings have indicated that avoidant and anxious attachment styles are negatively linked to relationship satisfaction, sport satisfaction (i.e., satisfaction with their training and instruction, personal treatment, and performance) and well-being including vitality, and positive affect. On the contrary, when athletes reported low levels of attachment anxiety and avoidance (i.e., a secure attachment) they reported high levels of well-being ( Davis and Jowett, 2014 ), Furthermore, this relationship has found to be most significant when all three psychological needs (e.g., autonomy, competence and relatedness) are satisfied ( Felton and Jowett, 2013 ). Although not yet associated directly with performance, these findings suggest that coach–athlete attachment may offer an important enabler of thriving.

Within both the thriving and attachment literatures, basic psychological need satisfaction has been shown to be a key variable of interest. To elaborate, within the thriving literature, satisfaction of basic psychological needs has been forwarded as a pre-requisite and proximal determinant of thriving (see Sheldon, 2009 ; Mahoney et al., 2014 ; Brown et al., 2017a ; Ryan and Deci, 2017 ). Indeed, Ryan and Deci (2017) suggest that humans are thought to achieve full functioning (or thriving) through the satisfaction of the basic and universal psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. With regard to sport-based evidence, basic psychological need satisfaction has been shown to be a reliable predictor of thriving across cross-sectional ( Brown et al., 2017b ), longitudinal ( Brown et al., 2021a ), and prospective ( Brown et al., 2020a ) studies. Turning to the relationship between attachment and basic psychological need satisfaction, Felton and Jowett (2013 , 2017) have found that basic psychological need satisfaction mediates the relationship between coach–athlete attachment and parent–athlete attachment on athlete’s well-being (vitality, positive and negative affect). Thus, when examining the possible relationship between attachment and thriving, it appears important that basic psychological need satisfaction is also considered as a potential mediating variable in this relationship.

The Present Study

The overarching aim of this paper was to add to the small body of emerging work on athlete thriving by examining “if” and “how” relationships to significant others, such as to parents and/or sports coaches enable (or hinder) thriving within sport. While research has attempted to examine both contextual enablers (attachment relationships) and process variables (basic psychological needs) on separate indicators of thriving (specifically, well-being), research has not yet examined such enablers of thriving as it has been conceptualized within sport to include indicators of well-being and performance in tandem. Thus, this paper presents two studies. Study 1 aims to extend previous research by examining: (1) the relationship between coach–athlete attachment and thriving across a variety of sports and (2) the mediating effects of basic psychological need satisfaction on the relationship between coach–athlete attachment and thriving. In line with the aims of Study 1, the hypotheses are firstly, a secure coach–athlete attachment relationship will have a positive association with thriving, while an insecure avoidant and anxious coach–athlete attachment relationship will have a negative association with thriving. Secondly, we hypothesize that basic psychological needs satisfaction will mediate the associations between secure coach–athlete attachment and insecure (anxiety and avoidance) coach–athlete attachment and thriving.

Study 2 aims to provide a preliminary examination of the predictive effects of parental attachment (mother and father) on thriving and competition performance within the sport of gymnastics. Gymnasts are often placed in competitive environments that require them to cope with various psychological demands and pressures (e.g., expectations) at an early age ( Mellalieu et al., 2009 ; Jacobs et al., 2017 ). As such, the anxiety and fear associated with gymnasts’ competition may activate the need for parental security in order to buffer the negative effects associated with not being able to perform well in the sport ( Feeney and Collins, 2015a ). Additionally, by conducting the study in a specific sport and situating the experience of thriving within a competition, we could record objective performance via judges’ scores. In so doing we were able to address a limitation of previous thriving literature pertaining to the need to consider the role of match/competition outcome with thriving (see, Brown et al., 2021a ). Therefore, based on previous research, we first hypothesize that gymnasts’ secure attachment with their mother and/or father will positively predict the experience of thriving at the competition and an insecure attachment with mother and/or father will negatively predict the experience of thriving at the competition. Secondly, we hypothesize that a gymnast’s secure attachment with his/her mother and/or father will positively predict competition performance and an insecure attachment will negatively predict competition performance. Thirdly, we hypothesize that a gymnast’s experience of thriving at the competition will be positively associated with competition performance.

Participants

The sample included 290 Swedish athletes (138 female and 152 male) ranging in age from 11 to 46 years old and with a mean age of 18.46 ( SD Age = 4.54). Participants were involved in a variety of individual and team sports (e.g., football, basketball, floorball, ice hockey, badminton, golf, and gymnastics) and represented their sports at various levels of performance including recreational (1.0%), club (2.1%), regional (64.1%), national (29.3%) and international (3.1%) levels (0.3% did not specify level). Furthermore, participants trained on average 9.2 h per week ( SD = 6.00) and reported an average coach–athlete relationship length of 2.8 years ( SD = 2.39).

Ethical approval to conduct this study was granted by the Regionala Etikprövningsnämnden i Umeå. Upon ethical approval, sport organizations and sports clubs were contacted via phone and/or email using both purposeful and convenience sampling techniques with information regarding the study and to elicit their athletes’ participation. A cross sectional, questionnaire-based design was employed. Upon consent, one of two methods for data collection was adopted. First, a date and time for the research team to visit the sports clubs closest to the first author were arranged. Upon meeting the participants at the beginning of a training session, the aims and objectives of the study were explained and written consent was obtained. The confidentiality and anonymity of the study were outlined, and participants were informed of their right to withdraw from the study by contacting the author and providing their unique code. A multi-section questionnaire was then distributed in paper and pencil format, and participants were reassured of the anonymity and confidentiality of their responses. Participants were asked to complete the questionnaire independently from their coach and peers, and members of the research team were on hand to supervise and respond to any queries. This process took approximately 20 min. For those athletes’ who could not be contacted face to face, a second method of data collection that involved a web-based survey was utilized. Sport clubs and organizations were asked to distribute the web-based survey link they were sent by the research team to their athletes. The web-based survey explained the purpose, participants’ ethical rights, as well as instructions on how to complete the questionnaire online. Upon consent, the multi-section questionnaire became available. Following completion, the participants’ data were electronically sent to a secure database for analysis.

The following measures were used in the present study. All items were translated to the Swedish language using a parallel back translation process.

Coach–Athlete Attachment

The Coach–Athlete Attachment Scale ( Davis and Jowett, 2013 ) contains 19 items designed to measure an athlete’s secure and insecure attachment styles toward their principle sports coach. Specifically, five items measured athletes’ secure attachment (e.g., “I know I can rely on my coach”), seven items measured athletes’ insecure anxious attachment (e.g., “I worry that I won’t fulfil my coaches’ expectations”), and seven items measured athletes’ insecure avoidant attachment (e.g., “I do not turn to my coach for reassurance”). Participants were asked to indicate the extent to which they agreed with each statement on a seven-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree , 7 = strongly agree ) in relation to how they felt toward their principle sports coach within the last month. Evidence for the validity and reliability of this instrument has been provided by Davis et al. (2013) and Davis and Jowett (2014) .

Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction

The 20-item Basic Need Satisfaction in Sport Scale (BNSSS; Ng et al., 2011 ) was utilized to measure athletes’ basic psychological needs satisfaction. Specifically, 10 items measured athletes’ autonomy satisfaction (e.g., “In my sport, I get opportunities to make choices”), five items measured competence satisfaction (e.g., “I am skilled at my sport”), and five items measured relatedness satisfaction (e.g., “In my sport, I feel close to other people”). Participants were asked to respond on a seven-point Likert scale (1 = Not true at all , 7 = very true ) in relation to how they felt within the last month. Ng et al. (2011) provided support for the factor structure of the scale and its internal consistency. As in previous research (e.g., Jowett and Shanmugam, 2016 ), a composite approach (i.e., a global factor) was implemented for basic psychological need satisfaction, with average subscale scores for autonomy satisfaction, competence satisfaction, and relatedness satisfaction used as observed values for a latent need satisfaction variable. The Cronbach alpha values for the autonomy satisfaction, competence satisfaction, and relatedness satisfaction subscales were 0.87, 0.88, and 0.92, respectively.

Participants were asked to provide evaluations of their subjective performance and well-being to assist in identifying sport performers who thrived (cf. Brown et al., 2017a ). Taking subjective performance first, this was measured by asking participants to rate their satisfaction with personal sporting performance over the past month on an 11-point Likert scale ranging from 0 = totally dissatisfied to 10 = totally satisfied ( Levy et al., 2011 ; Arnold et al., 2017 ; Brown et al., 2018 ). In line with Brown et al.’s (2018) conceptualization of thriving in sport as well as Ryan et al.’s (2013) recognition of differentiated approaches to understanding well-being, separate measures were used to assess hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. The indicator of hedonic well-being in this study was the positive affect scale from the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule Short Form (I-PANAS-SF; Thompson, 2007 ). Specifically, participants were asked to report the extent to which they experienced five emotional descriptors (viz., active, alert, attentive, determined, inspired) during their sporting encounters over the past month on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 = never to 5 = always . To indicate eudaimonic well-being, the Subjective Vitality Scale (SVS; Ryan and Frederick, 1997 ) was used, with participants reporting the extent to which they experienced aliveness and energy in their sporting encounters over the past month. Specifically, participants were asked to respond to four items from the SVS (e.g., “I felt alive and vital”) on a six-point scale ranging from 1 = not at all true to 6 = very true . Subscale scores for positive affect and subjective vitality were used as observed values (alongside subjective performance) for a latent thriving variable. The Cronbach alpha values were 0.85 for the positive affect subscale and 0.93 for the subjective vitality subscale.

Data Analysis Plan

Analyses were conducted using SPSS 25 ( IBM, 2017 ) and MPlus 8.4 ( Muthén and Muthén, 2019 ). SPSS 25 was used to screen for the proportion of missing data, univariate and multivariate outliers, and to compute the subscale scores for autonomy satisfaction, competence satisfaction, relatedness satisfaction, subjective vitality, and positive affect. In addition, scores were computed for the components of attachment to report the level of attachment athletes felt toward their coaches. Mplus 8.4 was used to determine the fit of the measurement model, calculate descriptive statistics for and correlations between latent constructs, and to examine the mediation model using a structural equation modeing framework. All analyses in Mplus 8.4 were conducted using a maximum likelihood estimation with robust standard errors (MLR) to account for any non-normality within the data and any missing values ( Muthén and Muthén, 2015 ); Mplus syntax for the analyses can be viewed in the Electronic Supplementary Resources.

The raw data set was initially screened for univariate outliers by comparing reported values to the minimum and maximum permissible scores for each of the scale items, with any inadmissible values replaced with a missing data value. Next, the proportion of missing data within the data set was assessed and cases with large amounts of missing data (>10%) were removed (cf. Hair et al., 2010 ). In instances where a case was missing data on a small number of items and data were deemed to be missing at random, the expectation–maximization algorithm was used to impute the missing values (cf. Tabachnick and Fidell, 2013 ). The item-level data were then averaged to create the respective subscale scores, with the subscale scores then used to identify any multivariate outliers; outliers were determined using the Mahalanobis distances with p < 0.001 ( Tabachnick and Fidell, 2013 ). Following the completion of data screening, the subscale scores were considered as observable indictors of the latent factors for need satisfaction and thriving.

The measurement model was constructed with each of the latent variables allowed to freely correlate. The adequacy of the measurement model was determined via interpretation of model fit indices and parameter estimates (see Gunnell et al., 2016 ). Model fit indicies included the Comparative Fit Index (CFI) and Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI) with values close to or above 0.90 interpreted as acceptable, and Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR) and Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) with values close to or below 0.08 considered as acceptable (see, Marsh et al., 2016 ). Parameter estimates were examined to determine whether items were behaving as had been intended with acceptable standardized factor loadings of above 0.30 and statistically significant ( p < 0.05 and confidence intervals did not cross zero; Brown, 2006 ). On the occurrence of inadequate global model fit, modification indices were used to identify areas of possible ill fit (e.g., where a specific restriction on the model is related to global misfit) and then the researchers discussed any proposed modifications in the context of previous research and theoretical knowledge. The measurement model was also used to compute the mean and standard deviation values for each of the latent constructs and the correlations between them.

To examine the potential mediating effect of need satisfaction on the relationships between the attachment styles and thriving, two latent path models were constructed. The first included the data for attachment styles and thriving, with thriving regressed on the styles to establish whether any direct, predictive paths existed (Model 1). Need satisfaction was then added in the second model, along with indirect paths for the predictive effect of attachment style on thriving via need satisfaction (see Figure 1 ; Model 2). The direct and indirect effects were interpreted using the unstandardized and standardized factor loadings, and statistical significance ( p < 0.05 and confidence intervals did not cross zero). The statistical significance of the indirect effects was also interpreted using bias-corrected 95% confidence intervals 1 ( MacKinnon et al., 2004 ).

Figure 1 . Latent path model displaying the mediation model with attachment styles, basic psychological need satisfaction, and thriving. Standardized parameter estimates are displayed with the 95% confidence interval in parentheses.

Data Screening

Following data screening, four cases were removed from the data set for missing greater than 10% of data, and 17 multivariate outliers were excluded; no univariate outliers were identified. Therefore, the final sample size for the measurement model and mediation analysis was 269.

Measurement Model

The measurement model demonstrated acceptable fit based on CFI, TLI, RMSEA, and SRMR values ( MLR χ 265 2 = 593.105, p < 000; CFI = 0.916; TLI = 0.905; RMSEA [90% CI] = 0.068 [0.061,0.075]; SRMR = 0.074). All standardized loadings were above the recommended threshold of 0.300 and statistically significant. The descriptive statistics for, and correlations between, each of the latent variables are presented in Table 1 .

Table 1 . Descriptive statistics and correlations for avoidant attachment, anxious attachment, secure attachment, need satisfaction, and thriving.

Mediation Analysis

The results from Model 1 indicate that significant predictive relationships existed between anxious attachment and thriving (βˆ ANX = −0.152, z = −2.126, p =0.033, β ^ ANX standardized = −0.155), and between secure attachment and thriving (βˆ SECUR = 0.192, z = 3.616, p <0.001, β ^ SECUR standardized = 0.252); however, a non-significant prediction was found for avoidant attachment and thriving (βˆ AVOID = −0.080, z = −1.366, p =0.172, β ^ AVOID standardized = −0.110). When need satisfaction was added as a mediator in Model 2, the relationships between the five constructs were in the expected direction. However, the direct paths from the attachment styles to thriving were non-significant: avoidant attachment and thriving (βˆ AVOID = −0.039, z = −0.794, p = 0.427, β ^ AVOID standardized = −0.054), anxious attachment and thriving (βˆ ANX = −0.059, z = −1.091, p = 0.275, β ^ ANX standardized = −0.061), and secure attachment and thriving (βˆ SECUR = 0.025, z = 0.447, p = 0.655, β ^ SECUR standardized = 0.033). Need satisfaction was a significant, positive predictor of thriving (βˆ NS = 0.665, z = 4.047, p <0.001, β ^ NS standardized = 0.475). The relationships between attachment styles and need satisfaction were significant and in the predicted direction: avoidant attachment and need satisfaction (βˆ AVOID = −0.078, z = −2.410, p = 0.016, β ^ AVOID standardized = −0.149), anxious attachment and need satisfaction (βˆ ANX = −0.150, z = −3.994, p < 0.011, β ^ ANX standardized = −0.215), and secure attachment and need satisfaction (βˆ SECUR = 0.245, z = 6.710, p < 0.001, β ^ SECUR standardized = 0.447). Significant, indirect effects were found for each of the attachment styles on thriving, with avoidant attachment (−0.052, p = 0.033, B-C 95% CI [−0.120, −0.013]) and anxious attachment (−0.100, p = 0.005, B-C 95% CI [−0.193, −0.044]) shown to have negative effects, and secure attachment to have a positive effect (0.163, p < 0.001, B-C 95% CI [0.094, 0.268]). As such, the results suggest that need satisfaction fully mediates the effects of attachment styles on thriving. However, the variance explained in need satisfaction ( R 2 = 33.9%) and thriving ( R 2 = 28.4%) suggests that unmeasured variables are likely to exist which also contribute to the prediction of these constructs. The final model is shown in Figure 1 .

A sample of 40 (female n = 34; male n = 6) Swedish gymnasts aged between 11 and 25 ( M age = 14.30, SD = 2.62) volunteered to take part in the study. The participants described competing across junior (5%), senior (12.5%), regional (67.5%), or 'other' (15%) levels, and trained on average for 11.28 h per week ( SD = 4.37).

A prospective design was employed for Study 2 using a purposeful sampling technique. Following approval from the Regionala Etikprövningsnämnden i Umeå, the Swedish Gymnastics Federation were contacted by email and telephone outlining the aims and objectives of the study and were asked to participate by providing contacts for and access to clubs across Sweden that they thought suitable for this project. Suggested gymnastic clubs were then contacted by email and/or telephone and a date and time for the first author to visit and discuss the project with coaches, athletes, and parents were arranged. Upon contact, the purpose and voluntary nature of the study were explained. Informed consent was obtained from participants willing to participate, and parental consent was obtained from those who were under the age of 18. Upon receiving informed and parental consent, an additional visit during a standard training session was arranged at least two weeks prior to an upcoming national competition, where participants were asked to complete a questionnaire containing demographic information and questions relating to their attachment relationship with their mother and father. Participants were asked to complete the questions independently from their parents and peers. To reduce potential problems associated with understanding and readability in the sample, participants were encouraged to ask questions to the research team present if they were unsure of the meaning of any items. At the time of their respective competitions, participants were required to complete measures of well-being 45 min before their performance and provide an indication of subjective performance within 30 min of competing. Each competition routine was video-recorded by a member of the research team.

Parental Attachment

Athletes’ attachment relationship with their parents, including both mother and father, was measured with the Swedish version of the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA; Armsden and Greenberg, 1987 ). The IPPA contains 25 items across three subscales that evaluates the degree of mutual trust (10 items; e.g., “my mother/father respects my feelings”), quality of communication (nine items, e.g., “I tell my mother/father about my problems and troubles”) and prevalence of anger and alienation from mothers and fathers (six items; e.g., “I feel angry with my mother/father”). These questions are repeated for each attachment relationship (e.g., mother, father). Participants are asked to rate each item using a five-point Likert scale (1 = almost never or never to 5 = almost always or always ) to indicate the degree to which the items are true. Secure attachment is indicated by a combination of trust and communication; therefore, a secure attachment score was derived from averaging trust and communication ratings. Insecure attachment is indicated by high ratings of alienation. Sound psychometric properties have been demonstrated within the initial validation of the IPPA scale and have since been used in an extensive number of studies including with sport samples ( Li et al., 2016 ). Cronbach’s alpha scores for mother secure and insecure attachment were 0.59 and 0.62 and for father secure and insecure attachment 0.65 and 0.50, respectively.

Participants were asked to provide evaluations of their subjective performance and well-being to assist in identifying sport performers who thrived in the present study ( Brown et al., 2017a ). The scales for both subjective performance and well-being have been described within the measures section of Study 1; however, the subjective performance measure was amended in this study to ask participants how they felt they performed during their routine, rather than over the past month. As such, the pre-routine well-being assessment provided a general indication of how participants were feeling when arriving at the competition (i.e., overall well-being over the past month) and the post-routine performance assessment offered a specific evaluation of the performance delivered during that competition. These ratings have been used together to provide a general indication of levels of thriving at the competition.

Competition Performance

Participants’ competitive routines were video-recorded by the first author during a national competition selected by the participants’ gymnastics club. In light of the fact that not every gymnast had competed at the same event, with the same set of judges, the gymnasts’ routines were marked by a consistent panel of professional judges certified with the Swedish Gymnastics Federation and the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG). Specifically, in line with FIG’s code of point’s guidelines and scoring system, two male judges were selected to mark the male gymnasts’ routines and two female judges were selected to mark the female gymnasts’ routines. Marks were awarded for both execution on a scale between 0 ( did not perform ) to 10 ( perfect and faultless ) and for difficulty on a scale between 0 ( not difficult ) to 6 ( high difficulty ). Mean judge scores were calculated for each participant, which represented each participant’s overall performance score. All judges were blind to the nature of the study and provided their scores independently of the other judges.

Data Analysis

Owing to the relatively small sample size, separate analyses were conducted to examine the effects of mother and father attachment. As with Study 1, SPSS 25 and Mplus 8.4 were used to conduct the data analysis, with the MLR estimator used to account for any non-normality and missing values within the data. Data were screened for cases with a high proportion of missing data (> 10%), univariate and multivariate outliers using the same criteria as Study 1. Prior to checking for multivariate outliers, averaged values were computed for mother/father trust, mother/father communication, mother/father alienation (i.e., insecure attachment), subjective vitality, and positive affect; values for trust and communication were then averaged to create a composite score for mother/father secure attachment. To derive a singular score for thriving, FScores were computed in Mplus from a measurement model including subjective performance, subjective vitality, and positive effect as indicators of a latent, thriving variable (see, Brown et al., 2020a ). Manifest path models were then specified with competition performance and thriving regressed on mother/father secure attachment and mother/father insecure attachment. Regression paths were interpreted using the unstandardized and standardized factor loadings, and statistical significance ( p < 0.05 and confidence intervals did not cross zero).

Six cases were removed from the mother attachment analysis due to high levels of missing data; no univariate or multivariate outliers were identified. The final sample size for this analysis was 34. Seven cases were removed from the father attachment analysis due to high levels of missing data; no univariate or multivariate outliers were identified. The final sample size for this analysis was 33.

Manifest Path Analysis

Descriptive statistics and correlations between variables for the mother attachment and father attachment analyses are displayed in Table 2 . These results suggest that competition performance was not related to any of the other variables in either the mother or father attachment data sets. Path models were drawn to examine the predictive effects of mother/father secure and insecure attachments on thriving and objective performance (see Figures 2 , 3 ). The results suggest that thriving was predicted by mother secure attachment (βˆ MSECUR = 1.501, z = 3.182, p = 0.001, β ^ MSECUR standardized = 0.466), while controlling for the effect of mother insecure attachment. Mother insecure attachment did not predict thriving, and neither secure nor insecure attachment predicted competition performance. The path model for father attachment suggested that, when controlling for the effects of insecure attachment, secure attachment was a positive predictor of thriving (βˆ FSECUR = 1.415, z = 3.316, p =0.001, β ^ FESCUR standardized = 0.532). No other predictive paths were statistically significant. Readers are encouraged to interpret these results cautiously, given the large confidence intervals and associated standard errors.

Table 2 . Descriptive statistics and correlations for secure attachment, insecure attachment, competition performance, and thriving.

Figure 2 . Manifest path model displaying the relationships between mother secure attachment, mother insecure attachment, competition performance, and competition thriving. Standardized parameter estimates are displayed with the 95% confidence interval in parentheses.

Figure 3 . Manifest path model displaying the relationships between father secure attachment, father insecure attachment, competition performance, and competition thriving. Standardized parameter estimates are displayed with the 95% confidence interval in parentheses.

The overarching aim of this paper was to contribute to the emerging research area of thriving in sport by examining “if” and “how” relationships with significant others, such as parents and/or sports coaches, enable (or hinder) athlete thriving. As such, this paper presents the findings from two studies. Study 1 aimed to: (1) examine the relationship between coach–athlete attachment and thriving across a variety of sports; and (2) examine the mediating effects of basic psychological need satisfaction on the relationship between coach–athlete attachment and thriving. Study 2 examined the predictive effects of parental attachment (mother and father) on thriving and in-competition performance within the sport of gymnastics.

Specifically, in Study 1 it was hypothesized (H1) that a secure coach–athlete attachment relationship would have a positive association with thriving, while an insecure (anxious and avoidance) coach–athlete attachment relationship would have a negative association with thriving. In line with these hypotheses, positive associations were found between athletes’ secure attachment and thriving and a negative association between athletes’ anxious attachment and thriving. Contrary to our expectations, no significant associations were found for athletes’ avoidant attachment and thriving. This suggests that athletes who perceive their coach–athlete relationship to be characterized by emotional closeness, trust, and support and possess positive IWMs of their coach (i.e., optimistic expectations, thoughts, and feelings) as well as themselves (i.e., positive self-image), were found to thrive. On the other hand, those athletes who perceived their relationship with their coach to be characterized by uncertainty and a fear of rejection do not thrive. Working models of attachment are central to social perception processes ( Collins et al., 2006 ), which may explain why athletes with varying attachment styles experience differential outcomes associated with thriving, which is measured subjectively.

Working models of attachment are highly accessible cognitive–affective structures that shape how individuals construe their social experiences ( Collins and Allard, 2001 ). For example, secure individuals have positive self-images and optimistic expectations of others, this allows them to remain positive about themselves and interpret their relational experiences and associated outcomes in relatively favorable ways ( Collins et al., 2006 ). In consideration of the findings of the present study, the positive IWMs may provide the mechanism underlying athletes’ positive subjective experiences of performance and well-being when participating in their sport. In contrast, insecure working models represent a cognitive vulnerability that predisposes individuals to perceive their relationship and associated outcomes less favorably ( Collins et al., 2006 ). In the present study, athletes with an insecure anxious attachment to their coach may have also possessed negative IWMs that inhibit positive subjective experiences of performance, as well as well-being. As for the nonsignificant findings with avoidant attachment, this is in contrast to previous research in sport whereby an avoidant attachment style toward a sports coach was found to be linked with greater dysfunctionality and lower levels of well-being ( Davis and Jowett, 2010 , 2014 ).

Taken together, these findings point to the importance of identifying specific needs and goals of individuals with different attachment styles and exploring their role in shaping intra- and interpersonal experiences. As such, the second hypothesis of Study 1 (H2) proposed that basic psychological need satisfaction would mediate the association between coach–athlete attachment (i.e., secure, anxious, and avoidant) and thriving. In support of the hypothesis, findings from Study 1 provide initial evidence that avoidant and anxious coach–athlete attachment are associated with limited thriving via a perceived lack of need satisfaction. That is, athletes with an avoidant or anxious attachment style who perceive their needs (i.e., autonomy, competence, and relatedness) are not being satisfied are likely to experience a less thriving in their sport. On the contrary, the findings outline that a secure coach–athlete attachment is associated with thriving via greater perceived need satisfaction.

Overall, these findings appear to suggest that athletes can thrive when their coach is engaging in coaching behaviors that create an environment in which the athlete feels their needs are being satisfied ( Mageau and Vallerand, 2003 ). This is of particular importance, especially for those athletes with an anxious or avoidant attachment style, as basic needs satisfaction may alleviate some levels of dysfunctionality and promote thriving. Further, previous research highlights that basic need satisfaction can mediate the relationship between an athletes’ avoidant attachment to their coach and well-being ( Felton and Jowett, 2013 ). The findings also lend support to the contention that basic psychological needs satisfaction is an underpinning process variable through which social-contextual factors (i.e., coaches) can impact thriving ( Brown et al., 2017a ).

The social factors examined in Study 2 centered on the role of parents, whereby it was first hypothesized that gymnasts’ secure attachment toward their mother and/or father would positively predict the experience of thriving at a competition, while an insecure attachment toward a mother and/or father would negatively predict thriving. The findings partially supported our hypothesis, as thriving was predicted by mother and father secure attachment only; mother and father insecure attachment did not significantly predict thriving. Therefore, perceived security in the mother–child and father–child relationship emerges as being particularly important for athletes’ optimal functioning and is reflected in athletes’ subjective well-being (i.e., positive affect and subjective vitality) and performance. Moreover, these findings sit well alongside research highlighting that a secure attachment relationship to parents is associated with subjective and psychological well-being (e.g., happiness and growth; Felton and Jowett, 2013 , 2017 ). It also extends research that has identified the significant role that parental attachment plays in sport by focusing on identifying athletes’ attachment relationship to their mother and father independently of their global attachment representations. It is noteworthy, however, that the association between an athlete’s insecure attachment to their mother and father and thriving was nonsignificant. A potential explanation of the finding may relate to the observations noted in Study 1 where other potential variables (e.g., basic psychological needs satisfaction) serve as mechanisms by which an athletes’ insecure attachment to their mother or father is linked to thriving. That said, this conjecture warrants further investigation.

Finally, it was hypothesized that a gymnast’s secure attachment with their mother and/or father would positively predict competition performance, while an insecure attachment would negatively predict competition performance. Our findings suggest that competition performance was not related to either mother or father attachment. One possible explanation for this could be that gymnasts’ attachment to their parents was measured on a global level, rather than on a contextual level. Research indicates that individuals are capable of developing context specific attachment bonds with parents, especially when the context elicits parental belief systems in regard to their child’s ability, success, and failures ( Ames, 1992 ; Lai and Carr, 2018 ). In particular, within achievement contexts such as sport, parents may demonstrate maladaptive parenting practices. Specifically, parents have been observed offering either more or less affection, accessibility, and recognition, depending upon how the child performs and meets their expectations. This is known as parental conditional regard (PCR; Assor et al., 2014 ). Parents’ subjective evaluation of their children’s successes and failures has the potential to serve as influential “contextual cues” that shape children’s IWMs, and therefore their attachment beliefs within a given context ( Lai and Carr, 2018 ). As such, it is possible that within the present study gymnasts held contextual attachment representations toward their parents that were not evident through the measurement of attachment on a global level. This potential explanation warrants further investigation in future research using more refined measurement techniques.

Taken collectively, the findings from both studies provide initial evidence that secure close attachment relationships in sport are fundamental to athletic thriving. Moreover, our findings align with Feeney and Collin’s (2015a) conceptual suggestion that humans can thrive through secure (close, caring) relationships both during adversity (e.g., stress of competition) and in the absence of adversity (e.g., during training). Moreover, this is the first study that has attempted to explore athletes’ attachment relationships as contextual enablers of thriving within the context of sport. Similarly, the present study is the first to extend the attachment research literature by examining the role of parental attachment in relation to athletes’ objective performance in a competitive environment. Examining multiple relationships enables the development of a more comprehensive picture outlining how relationships with significant others both in general and within an intense competitive environment influence athletes’ thriving.

Notwithstanding the studies’ strengths, limitations are inevitable and should guide future research. The first limitation stems from the cross-sectional nature of Study 1, which introduces common method variance/bias and prevents inferences of causality. Although the research extends beyond a cross-sectional design in the prospective research design of Study 2, the nature of the observational data (i.e., limited control) precludes the investigation of cause and effect relationships. Further research is warranted to examine the model proposed within Study 1 from a longitudinal perspective, to determine the temporal precedence and causal nature of the proposed relationships. Although Study 1 provides initial information for the development of interventions aiming to enhance athletic thriving through the satisfaction of basic psychological needs, it remains unclear as to whether a specific need may be more important than another. Future research should consider examining the sub-domains of basic needs satisfaction separately as well as potential interactions of combined individual needs. Furthermore, in the present study, athletes’ basic psychological needs were assessed in respect to sport in general. Future research could also consider assessing satisfaction of basic psychological needs with respect to the coach. In the present study, this would have complimented other measures (e.g., attachment relevant to the coach). Finally, in regard to Study 1, the sample was comprised of both individual and team sports, as well as a wide range of ages and levels of participation. This potentially creates issues with biased estimates and generalizability of the findings. To address potential limitations regarding heterogeneity of the sample, the subsequent study chose to focus on a sample of greater homogeneity.

Second, Study 2 examined the relationship between parent–child attachment and thriving within the context of gymnastics given the heightened experiences of stress experienced by these athletes. In doing so, we recognize that the findings may not be applicable to all youth sport contexts and encourage readers to reflect on the relevance of these findings to their sporting environments. Third, the reliability scores for secure and insecure attachment to mother and father did not quite meet the criteria (>0.7), although this may be relative to the sample size and the research design. Fourth, purpose of Study 2 was to provide preliminary data within a specific sport and situating the experience of thriving within a competition, where we could also record objective performance via judges’ scores. In doing so we have made steps in addressing a limitation of previous thriving literature pertaining to the need to consider the role of match/competition outcome with thriving (see, Brown et al., 2021a ). That said, to improve power in future work and to reduce the risk of false positive and false negative findings, we encourage researchers to consider additional sports beyond gymnastics, where access to larger groups of participants within a particular performance category and/or age groups is feasible.

Lastly, the relationship between coach–athlete attachment and thriving, as well as parent–child attachment and thriving, was examined separately; therefore, it was not possible to draw inferences regarding the hierarchy of these attachment relationships. To elaborate, while adolescents and adults maintain attachment bonds with multiple figures (e.g., parents, coaches, peers), they also have a consistent order of preference for whom they would seek out during times of need and/or stress ( Bowlby, 1969/1982 ). Future research would benefit from measuring coach–athlete and parent–athlete relationships simultaneously while identifying an order of preference, particularly during an intense and potentially stressful environment, such as competition where the attachment system is likely to be activated ( Ainsworth et al., 1978 ). Furthermore, by studying multiple relationships simultaneously, we can also identify if athletes’ attachment styles toward their coach are relatively independent of the attachment style an athlete reports toward their parent(s). This is an important question, given that the adolescent and attachment research literature outlines critical arguments surrounding the stability of attachment across domains ( Weiss, 1982 ; Zimmermann, 2004 ).

The findings presented in this study offer a number of important practical implications. First, the current study may guide the development of interventions that facilitate thriving by targeting coaches with the aim of systematically and deliberately implementing coaching strategies that address and satisfy athletes’ basic psychological needs. This is especially important to help support athletes with an insecure anxious or avoidant attachment style. As such, it is possible that sport psychologists and organizations at a local level could work with coaches to create environments which are underpinned with greater autonomy supportive behaviors versus controlling behaviors. Coaches displaying controlling behaviors are likely to induce athletes’ experience of feeling fearful, upset, nervous, and hostile; controlling behaviors have the potential to interrupt a secure attachment bond that is required for thriving to occur ( Bartholomew et al., 2011 ; Felton and Jowett, 2015 ). Secondly, if coaches are able to satisfy their athletes’ basic psychological needs through implementation of more autonomy supportive behaviors, it is possible that this could provide a buffer against neglectful parent–athlete relationships (insecure attachments) and support the athlete to thrive during adversity in the context of competition ( Feeney and Collins, 2015a ). The findings from the current studies highlight the potentially important role of the parent and coach, in athlete thriving. Future interventions could aid the development of sport specific education programs that guide parent and coach behavior that also acknowledges the importance of positive relations (secure attachments), in which parents and coaches consistently communicate trust, reassurance, support, and acceptance ( Feeney and Collins, 2015b ). While an athlete with an insecure attachment may be difficult to coach due to their lack of connection (avoidant) or too much needed connection (anxious), attempting to deliberately enhance the athletes trust, respect, and commitment overtime may facilitate changes in their internal working models (IWMs) that allow the athlete to develop a positive relationship. Afterall, the aim of sport is also to provide equal opportunities, whereby all athletes’ get the same quality of training ( Jowett and Felton, 2014 ).

The two studies presented shed light on a relatively unexplored area of thriving in athletes by providing significant evidence on the role of attachment relationships to significant others (e.g., parents and/or sports coaches) in influencing thriving. Further, the role of basic psychological needs satisfaction in facilitating thriving, especially for those with an insecure anxious or avoidant attachment style, forwards an important consideration for coaches, parents, and practitioners. These findings can inform the development of interventions that optimize the contextual enablers of thriving within sport.

Data Availability Statement

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

Ethics Statement

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by Regionala Etikprövningsnämnden i Umeå. Written informed consent to participate in this study was provided by the participants’ legal guardian/next of kin.

Author Contributions

LD designed Study 1 and Study 2, worked with HG on data recruitment, collected data and prepared the manuscript for publication. DB analysed the data for both Study 1 and Study 2 and together with LD prepared the manuscript for publication. RA worked together with LD and HG in designing Study 1 and Study 2 and contributed to the writing of the manuscript. HG worked together with LD and RA in designing Study 1 and Study 2. HG was also responsible for the Ethics application, translation of questionnaires and informed consent as well as data recruitment. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

This research was funded and supported by the Swedish Research Council for Sports Science (centrumforidrottsforskning; CIF) and Umeå School of Sport Sciences (Idrottshögskolan).

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Supplementary Material

The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.694599/full#supplementary-material

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Keywords: attachment styles, competition, performance, well-being, parents, relationships, coaches

Citation: Davis L, Brown DJ, Arnold R and Gustafsson H (2021) Thriving Through Relationships in Sport: The Role of the Parent–Athlete and Coach–Athlete Attachment Relationship. Front. Psychol . 12:694599. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.694599

Received: 13 April 2021; Accepted: 11 June 2021; Published: 02 August 2021.

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Copyright © 2021 Davis, Brown, Arnold and Gustafsson. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Louise Davis, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Examining the coach-athlete relationship as a predictor of ncaa student-athlete satisfaction.

Collin M. Fehr , The University of Montana

Year of Award

Document type.

Dissertation

Degree Type

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Degree Name

Counselor Education and Supervision

Department or School/College

College of Education and Human Sciences

Committee Chair

Veronica Johnson

Commitee Members

Kirsten Murray, John Sommers-Flanagan, Sara Polanchek, Charles Palmer

• University of Montana

The purpose of this non-experimental study was to investigate NCAA student-athletes’ perceptions of the quality of their current coach-athlete relationship as well as ratings of student-athlete satisfaction. An additional aim was to determine if student-athlete perceptions of the quality of the coach-athlete relationship had a predictive relationship with their ratings of athlete satisfaction. A total of 387 NCAA student-athletes of all levels completed measures of coach-athlete relationship quality and athlete satisfaction. Respondents indicated generally positive perceptions of their relationship with their coach and reported moderately high levels of satisfaction. There were statistically significant differences between groups based on sport type and NCAA division. The coach-athlete relationship was clearly linked with athlete satisfaction and regression analyses indicated that coach-athlete relationship quality significantly predicted ratings of athlete satisfaction. Implications for sport coaches, the NCAA, and coach education outlets were also discussed.

Recommended Citation

Fehr, Collin M., "EXAMINING THE COACH-ATHLETE RELATIONSHIP AS A PREDICTOR OF NCAA STUDENT-ATHLETE SATISFACTION" (2017). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers . 10943. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/10943

Since May 22, 2017

© Copyright 2017 Collin M. Fehr

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• Front Psychol

Effects of leadership style on coach-athlete relationship, athletes’ motivations, and athlete satisfaction

1 FIBA China, Beijing, China

Seungmo Kim

2 Department of Sport and Physical Education, Faculty of Social Sciences, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China

3 Department of Kinesiology, Recreation, and Sport Studies, College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Knoxville, TN, United States

4 College of Physical Education, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei, China

Associated Data

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

Introduction

The current study investigated the impacts of autocratic and democratic leadership styles on the coach-athlete relationship, athletes’ motivations, and athlete satisfaction.

Survey data were collected from 298 student-athletes (male = 157; 52.7%, female = 141; 47.3%) from 20 different Chinese collegiate sports. The Structural Equation Model was used to test the hypothesized model.

The results indicated democratic leadership had a direct positive influence on the coach-athlete relationship, while autocratic leadership had no direct effect. Both leadership styles did not influence autonomous motivation. The coach-athlete relationship, meanwhile, had a full mediation effect between democratic leadership and athletes’ motivation and satisfaction. In addition, autonomous motivation had a partial mediation effect between the coach-athlete relationship and athlete satisfaction.

Ultimately, the findings of the current study underscore the need for coaches and administrators to understand the impact of different leadership styles and highlight the importance of democratic leadership in improving athletes’ psychological outcomes.

A variety of different leadership styles are widely used among leaders in business, sports, and politics ( Farh and Cheng, 2000 ). Leading a team of athletes entails unique complexities compared to other business and organizational contexts, and there has been an increased interest in research about the effectiveness of coaching leadership styles in recent years ( Castillo and Espinosa, 2014 ; Jowett, 2017 ). A successful sports team will need coaches to properly guide their athletes to maintain healthy relationships with fellow team members while also fostering a high level of performance ( Mallett, 2005 ). Numerous studies have found that coaches’ leadership behaviors can play a crucial role in athletes’ psychological development and satisfaction ( Weiss and Friedrichs, 1986 ), training efficiency and game outcomes ( Becker and Wrisberg, 2008 ), and team cohesion ( Jowett and Chaundy, 2004 ; Vincer and Loughead, 2010 ).

The Multidimensional Model of Leadership in Sport (MML) developed by Chelladurai and Saleh (1980) based on the unique demands of sport is a pioneering model of sports leadership. The model has been frequently discussed and explored by sport scholars ( Hampson and Jowett, 2014 ; Chia et al., 2015 ). The MML delineates three states of leadership behavior—required, actual, and preferred. Behaviors related to adhering to government regulations, conference compliance, and institutional structure are defined as required . Behavior based on the coach’s ability and philosophy, as well as other situational factors, reflect the actual leadership state. Last, preferred leadership behavior refers to meeting the goals and needs of athletes ( Dupuis et al., 2006 ). The degree of consistency of the three leadership behavior states is an indicator of team performance and athlete satisfaction, which is associated with coaching effectiveness ( Chia et al., 2015 ). According to the MML, to become an effective coach, one most adapt and adopt appropriate coaching styles in different situations. For instance, a coach who leads high school level teams may need to employ different coaching styles depending on the team’s goals (e.g., league championship or individual skill development), the familiarity and maturity of the players, and the schedule of a weekly training regimen.

Although the autocratic leadership style may achieve successful results in some cases, athletes’ ability level (e.g., mental development) and team conditions must be considered when coaches employ different leadership styles. Because autocratic leadership reduces the opportunity for athletes’ internal decision-making, it should be matched with a level of development from athletes to follow coaches’ commands and instructions. In other words, to achieve the functional purpose of different leadership styles (i.e., autocratic or democratic) an appropriate level of ability by athletes to follow leadership is crucial to avoid conflicts ( Yang and Jowett, 2010 ). For instance, if a coach seeks to exert assertive control over athletes, those who prefer a higher level of autonomy may feel and tense or strained relationship with the coach. On the other hand, imbalance may also occur when the coach tends to be democratic, yet some athletes prefer clear guidance from coaches and want instructions that create a highly structured setting with specific plans and goals. Such disparity can lead to dissatisfaction and poor performance among athletes on a team. As a result, different leadership styles may have an important impact in sports teams, and coaches must think carefully in selecting and implementing leadership behaviors.

A “centralized sports governance” system has been used in China to organize elite sports, including recruiting youth athletes and hosting major events ( Yang et al., 2015 ). Unlike the primarily free-market system of the US, the Chinese government maintains control of funding, training, and operations for the sport performance sector. Under this government-led system, leadership studies in China have largely focused on the relationships between leadership behavior and team performance and cohesion ( Cui, 2010 ; Li et al., 2017 ) rather than athletes’ psychological well-being. China’s centralized sports institutions and cultural background may encourage the adoption of autocratic leadership styles, as performance is valued above and beyond other interests, such as social development and health. For example, paternalistic leadership based on the cultural roots of confucianism tends to emphasize strict discipline and authority. The three components of paternalistic leadership are authoritarianism, benevolence, and moral leadership ( Farh and Cheng, 2000 ). In fact, some studies have focused on paternalistic leadership to analyze the leadership style of Chinese coaches given the cultural background factors ( Li and Li, 2021 ; Li et al., 2021 ).

Overall, there is a lack of coaching leadership research that explores the unique sport culture in China, which has a strong focus on performance and elite sport. Many young Chinese athletes may spend more time with their coaches than with their parents, making it particularly important to understand the impact of coaches, not only with respect to advancing athletes’ sports skills, but also influencing their education and holistic development ( Zhu et al., 2017 ). Hence, the current study was designed to investigate the influence of leadership behaviors, including both autocratic and democratic leadership, to enrich the theoretical framework and increase the range of understanding about coaching in Chinese universities. The current study can help practitioners better understand effective teaching methods in practice by examining the impact of coaches’ leadership. Most significantly, the study may assist coaches in choosing appropriate leadership styles to interact with their athletes throughout training and competition to improve their performance and holistic development. Therefore, the main purpose of the current study was to investigate the impacts of autocratic and democratic leadership styles on the coach-athlete relationship, athletes’ motivations, and athlete satisfaction in Chinese collegiate athletics.

Theoretical foundations

As shown in Figure 1 , the conceptual model of the current study includes four constructs: (a) leadership style (i.e., autocratic leadership and democratic leadership), (b) coach-athlete relationship (CAR), (c) autonomous motivation, and (d) athlete satisfaction.

Proposed research model.

Leadership in sport

The success of a sports team can depend on a coach’s leadership style, and research has identified several theories to determine the most effective coaching approaches ( Jowett, 2017 ). In particular, the comparative effectiveness of democratic and autocratic coaching styles has been a frequent topic of investigation ( Case, 1984 ). Many theories of situational leadership were developed in the 1960s and 1970s, which include contingency theory ( Fiedler, 1967 ), path-goal theory ( House, 1971 ), and the situational leadership model ( Hersey and Blanchard, 1982 ). A key principle of situational leadership in sport is the leader’s ability to adapt to the needs and situations of athletes ( Kim et al., 2021 ). Since athletes may experience ups and downs in their skill development and psychological growth, coaches need to think carefully about the overall dynamic relationship and find the most effective patterns with the athletes they mentor. Given that situational leadership does not involve only a single skill or approach, it can be difficult for coaches to master a diverse set of coaching behaviors for a variety of situations.

One of the most influential leadership frameworks in sport has been Chelladurai and Saleh’s (1980) MML, which was established based on the interactive behaviors of sports group members. To measure leadership styles within the MML, Chelladurai and Sarah developed the Leadership Scale for Sports (LSS). The LSS organized athletes’ perceived leadership style into five major categories: training and instruction, democratic behavior, autocratic behavior, social support, and positive feedback. Training and instruction referred to the essential roles of a coach in improving the performance level of athletes. Democratic behavior, meanwhile, reflected the extent to which the coach allows participation by athletes in the decision-making process. The third factor, autocratic behavior, indicated that “a coach keeps apart from the athletes and stresses his or her authority in dealing with them” ( Chelladurai and Saleh, 1980 , p. 41). Social support is evident when the coach is involved in satisfying the interpersonal needs of athletes. Last, positive feedback refers to the coach expressing appreciation and complimenting the athletes for their performance and contributions.

As oppositional decision-making styles, autocratic and democratic leadership approaches each have distinct advantages and limitations ( Chelladurai and Saleh, 1980 ). Autocratic behavior, one of the most demanding leadership styles, emphasizes the coach’s authority over athletes in sports environments. With autocratic leadership, the dominance of the coach’s decision-making and personal power may limit athletes’ freedom of action but also facilitates quick problem-solving, which is often necessary for competitive sport environments. Autocratic leadership behaviors may increase athletes’ focus, which could increase practice effectiveness in some situations ( Yang and Jowett, 2010 ). For example, Castillo and Espinosa (2014) found that individuals who were in the process of learning to master a dance skill were significantly impacted by autocratic teaching techniques. They discovered that, despite the limitations of the authoritarian approach, it set clear goals for achievement to lessen students’ loss of concentration during the learning process, which in turn led to a more efficient improvement in performance. However, due to the lack of encouragement associated with autocratic coaching behavior, autocratic leaders often impede athlete’s motivation from the psychological level, which may negatively impact the coach-athlete relationship ( Mallett, 2005 ). Autocratic coaching style may also have a negative impact on athletes’ intrinsic motivation and feelings of relatedness ( Hollembeak and Amorose, 2005 ). A higher level of autocratic behavior by coaches is associated with athletes who report higher levels of anxiety and burnout with lower levels of enjoyment and perceived competence ( Price and Weiss, 2000 ). Overall, while autocratic leadership styles may have positive effects with respect to skill acquisition and performance in some situations, they also tend to negatively impact athletes in important ways.

In a contrast with an autocratic approach, Gastil (1994) made an important distinction between leadership and authority. In particular, he defined democratic leadership as performing three functions: distributing responsibility, empowering, and aiding deliberation ( Gastil, 1994 ). In sports, implementing democratic leadership behaviors may entail the head coach sharing authority with a team captain or position group leader, allowing them to take some responsibility for the team’s progress and skill development. Under democratic leadership styles, athletes have more power to decide how they train and compete ( Cruz and Kim, 2017 ). Higher levels of democratic leadership have been linked to more positive and less negative psychological outcomes for athletes ( Price and Weiss, 2000 ). However, highly democratic approaches may also engender conflicts with athletes as well as disrespect and disobedience ( Foels et al., 2000 ). A coach’s choices about the extent to which to employ democratic or autocratic leadership behavior may be influenced by factors such as gender ( Wałach-Biśta, 2019 ), competition level, and sports type (e.g., team sports or individual sports). For instance, Terry and Howe (1984) discovered that coaching effectiveness was highly correlated with task dependence in the sport, and team sports that require a high level of teamwork and interaction (e.g., basketball) favored more authoritarian leadership styles.

Literature regarding situational leadership theory generally supports the idea that the coach should be flexible and adopt different leadership styles dependent upon the context. The adaptability of leaders is a critical principle in situational leadership in sports and has been identified as a key component of coaching mastery ( Kim et al., 2021 ). Coaches in a setting such as collegiate sport must work with players who have varied levels of understanding due to their distinct educational backgrounds, athletic ambitions, and training experiences. Such factors make it challenging for coaches to maintain positive coach-athlete relationships and athlete satisfaction. Given the complexity involved in situational leadership, further research is required to understand the relationship between various leadership styles and important outcomes in sport, such as the coach-athlete relationship and athlete satisfaction.

Outcomes of leadership style

Coach-athlete relationship.

Athletes have interpersonal relationships with a variety of people in sport, including teammates, parents, coaches, and staff members. Given the fact that young athletes may spend more time with coaches than their parents in some elite sport contexts, the relationship quality with the coach is highly important, directly affecting the athletes’ skill development and competitive performance ( Jowett, 2017 ). Jowett and Poczwardowski (2007) defined the coach-athlete relationship as “a situation in which a coach’s and an athlete’s cognitions, feelings, and behaviors are mutually and causally interconnected” (p. 4).

Examining behavioral, affective, and cognitive elements involved in leadership are important to understanding social behavior, such as the coach-athlete relationship ( Jowett and Ntoumanis, 2004 ). Investigating the dynamic nature of CAR is essential for strengthening coaching effectiveness and fostering optimal physical and psychological performance of athletes ( Jowett, 2017 ). Research regarding the influence of relationship quality indicates that CAR can impact important outcomes, such as moral disengagement ( Chen et al., 2016 ) and social environment ( Jowett, 2007 ). In fact, athletes’ relationships with coaches may have a significant impact on psychological outcomes and long-term stability, effecting not only their sport performance, but also their holistic development ( Kim et al., 2020 ).

Given the important influence of a coach, it is essential to understand how different leadership styles may affect the relationships between coaches and athletes. In the context of sports in China, Zhu et al. (2017) found that the authoritarian behavior of coaches was the factor that athletes perceived as most detrimental to team effectiveness. Gao et al. (2021) similarly discovered that autocratic behavior appeared to have substantial detrimental impacts on athlete engagement and CAR. Relatively few studies, however, have investigated the connection between different leadership styles and the coach-athlete relationship ( Jowett and Chaundy, 2004 ; Hampson and Jowett, 2014 ), particularly in the context of East Asia.

Motivation has been extensively studied as a crucial factor influencing athletic success ( Vallerand, 2007 ). Understanding and promoting athlete motivation has been demonstrated to have a significant influence on athletes’ performance ( Mallett, 2005 ), cognition ( Ryan and Deci, 2000 ), and behaviors ( Li et al., 2021 ). Due to the importance of motivation in sports performance, much research has investigated the ways in which coaches’ behaviors, such as decision-making style, reward distribution, and feedback methods, are essential factors affecting athletes’ motivation ( Mageau and Vallerand, 2003 ).

The two most well-known theories of motivation in sports psychology are self-determination theory (SDT; Deci and Ryan, 1985 ; Ryan and Deci, 2000 ) and achievement goal theory (AGT; Nicholls, 1989 ). SDT focuses on intrinsically motivated psychological behavior based on three basic needs—competence, relatedness, and autonomy ( Deci and Ryan, 1985 ). On the other hand, AGT places more emphasis on goal orientations, particularly task and ego orientation ( Nicholls, 1989 ). The principles of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are important areas of focus within SDT. The model expands on the three fundamental requirements (i.e., competence, relatedness, and autonomy) to form a continuous and unified structure that can locate and illuminate various factors impacting athletes’ motivation ( Spray et al., 2006 ).

Deci and Ryan (1985) developed a motivation continuum that segmented motivation into six components. From highest to lowest, the levels of self-determination were labeled intrinsic, integrated, identified, introjected, external, and amotivation. The term intrinsic motivation (IM) referred to instances in which an activity is done for inherent reasons. Extrinsic motivation (EM), meanwhile, included a group of motivations with varying degrees of autonomy—integrated, identified, introjected, and external. Last, amotivation (AM) indicated a lack of autonomy. In sports, an athlete’s actions may reveal their motivation. For instance, athletes who feel satisfaction in the sport or find their value by participating in sport are more likely to be motivated by internal factors. In contrast, engaging in sport to escape punishment and guilt or seek praise and approval from others tends to be influenced by extrinsic motivations, which reflect non-autonomous intentions ( Amorose and Anderson-Butcher, 2007 ).

Existing research evaluating IM and EM to determine the quality of motivational orientations has identified the differentiation between autonomous and controlled motivation as being important ( Ratelle et al., 2007 ). Whereas autonomous behavior is typically self-initiated, controlled motivation occurs when an action results from external influence. To calculate controlled motivation, researchers have often used the mean score of external and introjected motivation ( Sheldon and Elliot, 1998 ). Conversely, investigators have identified autonomous motivation as a mix of intrinsic and identified motivation ( Fenton et al., 2014 ). Koestner et al. (2008) found that increasing autonomous motivation was more successful than decreasing controlled motivation when examining the relative role of the two in the achievement of personal goals.

Coaches’ decision-making styles, autocratic or democratic, can have substantial implications with respect to athletes’ motivations. Creating an autonomy-supportive motivational climate has been found to serve an essential role in supporting athletes to develop strong commitment and interest in sports ( Mallett, 2005 ). Hollembeak and Amorose (2005) established that autocratic and democratic styles were the two behaviors that had a substantial indirect effect on autonomy in all five categories of leadership styles under the LSS ( Chelladurai and Saleh, 1980 ). Democratic leader behavior has received positive feedback from athletes at all levels, including elementary ( Fenton et al., 2014 ), secondary ( Spray et al., 2006 ), high school ( Amorose and Anderson-Butcher, 2007 ), club teams ( Vincer and Loughead, 2010 ), and college. Autonomy supportive coaching behaviors, such as encouragement, may have significant benefits in boosting intrinsic motivation and engagement of athletes ( Hollembeak and Amorose, 2005 ). In contrast, autocratic behavior has been found to hinder athletes’ initiative ( Hollembeak and Amorose, 2005 ).

The motivational model of the coach-athlete relationship, presented by Mageau and Vallerand (2003) , illustrated the positive effect of coaches’ autonomy supportive behavior on CAR and motivation of athletes. Wu et al. (2014) found that authoritarian behavior was negatively related to autonomy, relatedness, and intrinsic motivation, whereas democratic behavior had the opposite impact on these outcomes in Chinese collegiate sports. Consequently, to improve coaching effectiveness in China, it may be useful to advance the autonomous motivation of athletes as a key to developing effective coaching behavior and healthy coach-athlete relationships.

Athlete satisfaction

Athletes’ satisfaction has been observed as a key reflection of many coaching characteristics, including coaches’ personality ( Yang et al., 2015 ), physical behaviors ( Davis et al., 2019 ), and leadership style ( Kim et al., 2020 ). Therefore, considering athletes’ satisfaction is an important practice for coaches to achieve successful performance and training efficiency by valuing the effect of different leadership styles. Riemer and Toon (2001) revealed that an athlete’s ability level affected their preference for types of leadership behavior and level of satisfaction. Weiss and Friedrichs (1986) , meanwhile, found that the democratic leadership style positively impacted satisfaction among college athletes. Many studies on the coach-athlete relationship have found associations among CAR, motivation, and satisfaction ( Lorimer and Jowett, 2009 ). Multiple studies ( Koestner et al., 2008 ; Grant and Berg, 2011 ) have shown that autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, and satisfaction interacted with each other. Jowett (2017) , meanwhile, asserted that CAR was central to coaching effectiveness, and its quality greatly impacted athletes’ levels of satisfaction, pleasure, and wellbeing. Davis et al. (2019) similarly found relationships between the quality of CAR and athletes’ experiences of sport satisfaction.

In the past decade, research on coaches’ leadership styles in China has concentrated on the connection between team cohesion and team effectiveness for college athletes ( Cui, 2010 ; Chen et al., 2016 ; Li et al., 2017 ; Zhu et al., 2017 ; Gao et al., 2021 ). Thus, the current study attempted to fill a gap in Chinese coaches’ research on the impact of autocratic and democratic leadership styles among Chinese coaches on athletes’ satisfaction levels and enhancing coaching efficiency through CAR and motivation. Specifically, it was hypothesized that CAR and motivation would mediate the association between coaching style and satisfaction. Overall, the following hypotheses were proposed based on the aforementioned research background:

Hypothesis 1: Leadership style (H1a: autocratic leadership, H1b: democratic leadership) will influence coach-athlete relationship.

Hypothesis 2: Leadership style (H2a: autocratic leadership, H2b: democratic leadership) will influence autonomous motivation.

Hypothesis 3: Coach-athlete relationship will mediate the relationship between leadership style (H3a: autocratic leadership, H3b: democratic leadership) and autonomous motivation.

Hypothesis 4: Coach-athlete relationship will mediate the relationship between leadership style (H4a: autocratic leadership, H4b: democratic leadership) and athlete satisfaction.

Hypothesis 5: Autonomous motivation will mediate the relationship between leadership style (H5a: autocratic leadership, H5b: democratic leadership) and athlete satisfaction.

Hypothesis 6: Autonomous motivation will mediate the relationship between coach-athlete relationship and athlete satisfaction.

Materials and methods

Participation and survey procedure.

The population of the current study was composed of current college athletes in China. An online survey with a convenience sampling method was used to collect data. The researchers sent an initial WeChat message with a link to the survey to athletes from a variety of sports at the collegiate level in China to recruit participants. The data collection period was from April 22 to May 1, 2022. In addition to inviting them to complete the questionnaire, recipients were also asked to forward the link to other student-athletes in their networks. Two follow-up e-mail reminders were sent to encourage participation. A total of 157 male (52.7%) and 141 female (47.3%) athletes from 20 different sports, including volleyball ( n = 109; 36.6%), basketball ( n = 54; 18.1%), track and field ( n = 39; 13.1%), football ( n = 33; 11.1%), table tennis ( n = 13; 4.4%), and other sports completed the questionnaire. The majority of participants were first-class athletes ( n = 138; 46.3%) and second-class athletes ( n = 138; 46.3%) according to the Chinese Athletes Technical Classification Standard ( General Administration of Sport of China, 2010 ). Participants were primarily between 16 and 24 years old ( n = 276; 92.6%), and the majority ( n = 207; 69.5%) had trained for between 5 and 10 years in their sport. More demographic information is shown in Table 1 .

Demographic profile of participants ( n = 298).

Instruments

Forty-one items from previously validated scales were used to measure autocratic coaching style (five items), democratic coaching style (five items), coach-athlete relationship (eleven items), motivation (nine items), athlete satisfaction (five items) and demographic information. The 10 items measuring autocratic and democratic coaching behaviors were adopted from the LSS ( Chelladurai and Saleh, 1980 ). Each item began with the statement “my coach…” and included items such as “refuses to compromise on a point” and “speaks in a manner not to be questioned” for autocratic behavior and “let his/her athletes share in decision making” and “encourages athletes to make suggestions on conducting practices” for democratic behavior. These items were scored using 7-point Likert-type scales ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). To measure an athlete’s perception regarding the relationship with his/her coach, Coach-Athlete Relationship Questionnaire (CART-Q; Jowett and Ntoumanis, 2004 ) was used. The scale included 11 items, such as “I appreciate the sacrifices my coach has experienced in order to improve performance,” “I am committed to my coach,” and “I am ready to do my best.” The items were also scored using a 7-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Nine items from the Sport Motivation Scale (SMS-II), developed by Pelletier et al. (2013) were utilized to examine autonomous motivation. The items included “Because it gives me pleasure to learn more about my sport” and “Because participating in sport is an integral part of my life.” Athlete satisfaction was measured using job satisfaction scales developed by Judge et al. (1998) , modified to be used in the context of sports. The items included “I feel fairly satisfied with my team” and “Each day at practice seems like it will never end (reversed coded).”

In developing the questionnaire, the survey was initially written in English because the scales of the four concepts that the current research adopted were originally developed in English. The English version was then translated into Chinese, as all the participants in the current study were native Chinese speakers. The translation was conducted by two individuals with a graduate degree in business and communication data science who were familiar with organizational behavior literature and fluent in English and Mandarin. The Chinese version was then back-translated into English by another individual, who was a Ph.D. candidate in sports psychology with similar language qualifications to the previous translators. Finally, 10 athletes in China were recruited for a pilot study to assess the survey’s ease of use and clarity.

Data analyses

The current study sequentially conducted a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to evaluate the measurement model and structural equation model (SEM) analysis to examine the research model based on Anderson and Gerbing’s (1988) two-step approach using AMOS 27. For both the CFA and SEM, the present study used indexes [i.e., chi-square, the Steiger-Lind Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA), Standardized Root Mean Squared Residual (SRMR), Comparative Fit Index (CFI), and Tucker-Lewis fit index (TLI)] to assess an overall fit of structure since the indexes are often recommended to evaluate structural equation models ( Browne and Cudeck, 1992 ; Hu and Bentler, 1999 ; Kline, 2015 ). In addition, Cronbach’s α coefficients were calculated to verify the internal consistency of each measurement scale’s components. Descriptive statistics were compiled to provide relevant demographic information about the sample as well as the means and standard deviations of each construct. Next, SEM was used to test the proposed model. The bootstrapping method was used to test the mediating effects of the proposed model, which may provide additional implications for leadership style, CAR, autonomous motivation, and athlete satisfaction. The research model also was assessed by the same indexes previously used for the CFA.

Measurement model

The results of an initial CFA showed unacceptable model fit [Chi-square statistic = 2,089.045, df = 550, CFI = 0.863, TLI = 0.852, RMSEA = 0.097, and SRMR = 0.068] since TLI and CFI should be equal to or greater than 0.9 ( Hair et al., 2010 ) and RMSEA and SRMR should be equal to or less than 0.08 ( Tabachnick et al., 2007 ) to be acceptable. Further, Parsimonious Fit Indices (PNFI and PCFI) were 0.761 and 0.798, respectively. Thus, the investigators removed four items (two for autocratic coaching style and two for athletic satisfaction) due to low factor loadings (below 0.4). The removed items were “My coach works relatively independent of the athletes” and “My coach does not explain his/her action” for autocratic leadership, as well as “Each day at practice seems like it will never end (Reversed Code)” and “I consider my team and my sport rather unpleasant (Reversed Code)” for athlete satisfaction. Since negatively phrased items may be associated with respondent errors ( Sonderen et al., 2013 ), reversed codes may have contributed to the low factor loadings in. After dropping those items, the results of the CFA indicated an acceptable fit for the measurement model [Chi-square statistic = 1,199.304, df = 414, CFI = 0.927, TLI = 0.918, RMSEA = 0.080, and SRMR = 0.060] with Parsimonious Fit Indices (PNFI and PCFI) of 0.796 and 0.826, respectively. Convergent validity of the measures was established because construct reliability (CR) and average variance extracted (AVE) were greater than 0.7 and 0.5, respectively ( Ahmad et al., 2016 ). Discriminant validity was also established since correlation coefficients among latent variables were smaller than the square roots of AVEs. The results of convergent and discriminant validity along with the results of the correlation analysis are shown in Tables 2 , ​ ,3. 3 . In terms of internal consistency, Cronbach’s α for autocratic leadership, democratic leadership, coaching-athlete relationship, motivation, and athlete satisfaction were 0.715, 0.818, 0.864, 0.882, and 0.904, respectively ( Lance et al., 2006 ).

Measurement model.

Discriminant validity.

Values on the diagonal denote square root of the AVEs. CAR, coach-athlete relationship; AM, autonomous motivation; AS, athlete satisfaction.

*** p < 0.001; ** p < 0.01; * p < 0.05.

Descriptive statistics

Table 4 shows the means and standard deviations of each construct in terms of the gender of the sport and the sample as a whole. These data revealed that male and female athletes showed similar outcomes. For example, all the means for each construct were above the mid-point of the scale (4.00), with the exception of autocratic leadership. The means from both men and women were below the midpoint of the scale for autocratic leadership. Regarding the outcomes of coach leadership style, the means for the outcome variables ranged from 5.94 (athlete satisfaction) to 6.65 (coach-athlete relationship). The levels of all outcomes approached or exceeded 6 out of 7, which indicates athletes perceive a good relationship with their coaches and are satisfied with their current athletic careers overall.

Descriptive statistics.

Structural model

The structural model consisting of autocratic leadership, democratic leadership, CAR, and athlete satisfaction was tested using the maximum likelihood estimation method. The model fits of the revised structural model were acceptable [Chi-square statistic = 1,242.421, df = 446, CFI = 0.927, TLI = 0.919, RMSEA = 0.079, and SRMR = 0.059] with Parsimonious Fit Indices (PNFI and PCFI) of 0.801 and 0.834, respectively. Figure 2 shows the results of the revised structural model. The results indicated that autocratic leadership had no direct effect on the coach-athlete relationship, which rejected hypothesis 1a, whereas democratic leadership had a direct positive influence on coach-athlete relationship (β = 0.651, SE = 0.073, p < 0.001), which supported Hypothesis 1b. However, both leadership styles did not influence autonomous motivation, which rejected Hypothesis 2a and 2b.

Proposed structured research model with path coefficients.

The mediating effects to examine the internal mechanism among the variables in the proposed model were tested using the bootstrapping method; 5,000 bootstrap samples were generated using random sampling with replacement from actual data. Although the proposed model consisted of seven indirect paths to test the hypotheses, we tested only three direct paths because several direct paths to the proposed mediators were not supported. With respect to the mediation effects of ç between democratic leadership and outcomes (autonomous motivation and athlete satisfaction), the mediation effects were significant (Democratic leadership → CAR → autonomous motivation (β = 0.505, SE = 0.064, p < 0.001), Democratic leadership → CAR → athlete satisfaction (β = 0.558, SE = 0.054, p < 0.001). Therefore, the coach-athlete relationship had a full mediation effect between only democratic leadership and the outcome variables, which supported Hypothesis 3b and 4b but rejected Hypotheses 3a, 4a, 5a, and 5b. In addition, the mediation effects of autonomous motivation between CAR and athlete satisfaction showed a partial mediation effect with the indirect effect (CAR → autonomous motivation → athlete satisfaction: β = 0.327, SE = 0.075, p < 0.001) and the direct effect (CAR → athlete satisfaction: β = 0.490, SE = 0.097, p < 0.001). Therefore, Hypothesis 6 was rejected. Table 5 provides detailed results with respect to the direct and indirect effects.

Direct and indirect effects using bootstrapping method.

CAR, coach-athlete relationship; AM, autonomous motivation; AS, athlete satisfaction.

This study aimed to discover the impacts of autocratic and democratic leadership style along with democratic leadership on coach-athlete relationships, autonomous motivation, and athletes’ satisfaction in Chinese collegiate athletics. A total of eleven hypotheses were developed based on the MML ( Chelladurai and Saleh, 1980 ) and associated research on the relationships between coaches and athletes. Among the proposed hypotheses, three hypotheses were supported. The findings of this study help provide a more comprehensive understanding of the impact of coaching style on the coach-athlete relationship and athletes’ motivation and satisfaction in Chinese collegiate athletics.

The descriptive statistics of this study illustrated that collegiate athletes in China reported average mean scores of 3.82 for autocratic leadership, 5.57 for democratic leadership, 6.65 for coach-athlete relationships, 6.03 for autonomous motivation, and 5.94 for athlete satisfaction (on a 7-point scale). The average mean scores of male and female athletes were comparable, implying that gender has less influence on the perception of coaching leadership style in this context. A trend had been apparent in prior research in that athletes in Western countries perceived low levels of autocratic leadership among their coaches ( Jowett and Chaundy, 2004 ; Hampson and Jowett, 2014 ), whereas studies in East Asian countries, such as China ( Cui, 2010 ) and Korea ( Cruz and Kim, 2017 ), found higher levels of authoritarian leadership among coaches. The results of the current study, however, revealed that athletes’ perceived levels of autocratic leadership among coaches to be below the midpoint of the scale. Due to selections for Chinese national teams being typically made from among athletes in the professional team system, coaches in collegiate sports may be under less pressure to perform and utilize less authoritarianism compared to those at the professional and elite levels. On the other hand, the average score for democratic leadership was 5.57, higher than that found in other studies in East Asia, suggesting that democratic leadership may be becoming more regularly applied in the Chinese university context. Given the high scores of CAR (6.65), autonomous motivation (6.03), and satisfaction (5.94), the findings highlight important relationships between different coaching styles and these three variables.

Academic implications

There are three key findings to highlight from the SEM analysis in this study. First, with respect to hypothesis 1a and 2a, the effects of autocratic leadership on CAR and autonomous motivation were found to be insignificant in this study. These results are notable because prior research has frequently found autonomous motivation to have a direct or indirect relationship with autocratic coaching styles. Hollembeak and Amorose (2005) , for example, found that authoritarian and democratic styles had significant indirect effects on autonomy, while Wu et al. (2014) study on the motivation of Chinese college athletes determined that authoritarian behavior had a significant negative relationship with autonomy and intrinsic motivation. However, the results of the current study showed that the autocratic leadership style did not have a significant relationship with autonomous motivation. Grant and Berg (2011) suggested that since the two motivations, autonomous and controlled, often coexist, examining the simultaneous action of both motivations is worthwhile. The fact that autocratic leadership only had a minimal effect on autonomous motivation might be explained by the coexistence and ambivalence of different types of motivation. For example, the nature of the coach-athlete relationship varies depending on different cultural norms in different countries ( Yang et al., 2015 ), and respect for those in positions of authority (i.e., coaches) is considered a traditional norm in Chinese culture. However, athletes’ respect for a coach may develop differently and be affected by varying factors in different (e.g., Western) cultural contexts. Culture norms for respecting authority figures may have influenced the sensitivity of Chinese college athletes toward autocratic behaviors, which in turn led to a non-significant relationship between CAR and autonomous motivation ( Lee, 2017 ). Furthermore, the findings revealed no link between autocratic leadership and CAR, either positive or negative, similar to the results of Li and Li (2021) in a study among Chinese youth soccer players.

Secondly, with respect to hypothesis 1b, the democratic coaching approach directly and positively impacted the quality of relationships between coaches and athletes. Moreover, with respect to hypothesis 2b, democratic leadership had an indirect influence on autonomous motivation and athlete satisfaction through CAR. These results are largely in line with previous research findings on such relationships. Through more democratic leadership behaviors, coaches appear to build trust and a sense of respect with their athletes ( Gao et al., 2021 ). Mageau and Vallerand (2003) , p. 886 identified specific behaviors that contributed to the autonomy-supportive climate, including “providing choice to their athletes within specific limits and rules” and “providing the opportunity for athletes to take initiative and act independently.” In addition, Mageau and Valler and highlighted how the autonomy-supportive conduct of coaches improved the quality of CAR and boosted players’ motivation. The results of the current study confirm the mediating role of CAR in the association between democratic leadership style and autonomous motivation and satisfaction. In alignment with Jowett (2017) , CAR appears to be at the core of coach effectiveness. The outcomes of the current study (i.e., CAR, autonomous motivation, and athletes’ satisfaction) have been frequently recognized as important influences for enhancing performance in sports psychology ( Vallerand and Losier, 1999 ; Jowett, 2017 ). Therefore, the current study provides further support to the findings of prior studies regarding the effects of autocratic and democratic coaching styles ( Jowett and Chaundy, 2004 ) by confirming that democratic leadership behaviors had a more positive influence on athletes’ psychological outcomes in Chinese collegiate athletics than autocratic leadership behaviors.

Finally, with respect to hypothesis 6, the current study discovered a partial mediating effect of autonomous motivation between CAR and athlete satisfaction, confirming the association between these three variables observed in previous studies ( Koestner et al., 2008 ; Grant and Berg, 2011 ). The results demonstrated that a number of criteria, including the quality of CAR and the athlete’s internal motivation, can be used to explain athlete satisfaction. Previous results had demonstrated that coaches employing democratic coaching behavior and encouraging athletes to make decisions for themselves improve team cohesion and overall satisfaction ( Weiss and Friedrichs, 1986 ). Athletes who feel trusted and have a strong emotional attachment with their coaches tend to show increased positive motivation and encouragement of feedback from their teammates ( Watson and Kleinert, 2019 ). Ultimately, fostering autonomous motivation among athletes appears to be an important area on which coaches should focus their attention.

Practical implications

The current study’s findings supported the hypotheses that different leadership coaching approaches, particularly democratic leadership, can affect athletes’ satisfaction levels, interpersonal relationships, and motivation. It is crucial for coaches and college sports team administrators to thoroughly understand the ways in which different coaching styles may increase the quality of connections with players and affect their behaviors. The findings of the current study demonstrated that by maintaining a good relationship with the coach and having a high level of autonomous motivation, athletes’ higher levels of satisfaction could be vital to their performance ( Weiss and Friedrichs, 1986 ). The situational leadership model emphasizes the importance of coaches’ flexibility in applying different leadership techniques in accordance with athletes’ needs and goals ( Hersey and Blanchard, 1982 ). Since the autocratic leadership style did not significantly impact athletes’ relationships and autonomous motivation in the current study, Chinese athletes may have a high tolerance for autocratic behaviors due to cultural influences. While Chinese college coaches have the discretion to use an authoritarian approach to achieve efficient results in the preseason or during short-term intensified training, relying solely on autocratic actions would be unlikely to improve the quality of relationships or increase autonomous motivation, despite the fact that China has a “centralized sports governance” system ( Yang et al., 2015 ), and paternalistic leadership is a common leadership style in Chinese culture ( Wu et al., 2014 ). Conversely, coaches should involve the athletes in preparing training plans and developing strategies in competition to avoid monotony and repetition in offseason training. Democratic behaviors that coaches adopt, when appropriate, can make athletes feel respected and trustworthy and satisfy their psychological needs. In responding to the coaches’ effort and care, college athletes would be likely to show more initiative by cultivating healthy relationships with their coaches in response to democratic approaches.

The results of the current study confirmed that both the quality of the coach-athlete relationship and autonomous motivation had a significant positive impact on athlete satisfaction, which may deliver an important message to a sports team. Respect for and obedience toward coaches and other authority figures has been a traditional component of Chinese culture. Athletes, as subordinates, have tended to obey coaches’ demands and refrain from expressing their true feelings to a coach. The conventional view of coaches as authoritarian team leaders has also prevented them from developing the practice of encouraging communication ( Lee, 2017 ). Therefore, it is critical for coaches and team managers to maintain effective two-way communication. The connection and confidence between coaches and athletes should be boosted and supervised to maintain a long-term healthy relationship ( Gao et al., 2021 ). Coaches, as leaders, should regularly and effectively seek to understand athletes’ emotional and psychological changes to evaluate their status and interpersonal relationships. At the same time, the managers of sports teams should foster an environment in which athletes have the opportunity to express their feelings and thoughts to the coach freely. Additionally, maintaining open lines of communication makes it easier for the coach to select the best coaching approach during practice and competition based on the status of the athletes and the team.

Limitations and future research directions

Although this study contributes to the literature regarding the impacts of various leadership styles on Chinese college athletes, there are some important limitations. First, the current study only examined the influences of coach leadership styles based on the perspective of athletes. Price and Weiss (2000) explain that different leadership styles may also contribute to coaches’ burnout, which affects the coach-athlete relationship as well as the team’s long-term performance. In addition, coaches’ leadership style preferences are not immutable ( Hersey and Blanchard, 1982 ), and the decision-making process for coaches differs from athletes’ considerations and motivation. At the same time, coaches’ perspectives can help further explain the interactive relationship when analyzing the connection between athletes and coaches. Additionally, the data for this study were collected through online surveys. Compared with face-to-face methods, the number of unqualified questionnaires through the online collection is greater ( Heerwegh, 2009 ), further demonstrating the value of multiple methodological approaches when investigating this topic.

Although the current study adds to the base of information on Chinese coaching styles by analyzing the relationship between motivation and satisfaction among CAR, further investigation is required to more comprehensively identify additional factors that impact training effectiveness. The current study emphasized the impact of leadership style, particularly democratic leadership, on athlete outcomes in Chinese collegiate athletics. Of course, the authoritarian leadership style may also be useful in some contexts, such as with novice athletes who wish to improve their skills quickly ( Castillo and Espinosa, 2014 ). Hypothetically, if Chinese youth athletes generally accept an authoritarian leadership style, they may prefer a less stressful or inexperienced democratic leadership style when competing in college. Building from the current study, a more comprehensive sample of athletes, including high school and youth athletes, can provide insight into satisfaction with different coaching leadership styles at different stages of development. Such insight may assist coaches in choosing appropriate leadership styles in different situations at various stages of athletes’ development in order to enhance athletes’ satisfaction and performance.

Finally, the current study is one of relatively few investigations into leadership style and its effect on athletes’ psychological outcomes in China. Such research in the context of China is particularly important, given that many young Chinese athletes may spend more time with their coaches than with their parents due to the high-stakes nature of sport in the country, affecting their sports skills, education, and holistic development ( Zhu et al., 2017 ). While the bulk of research on coaching leadership has been conducted in Western nations, differing cultural norms may impact the nature of the coach-athlete relationship in different national contexts ( Yang et al., 2015 ). In turn, additional cross-cultural research that compares leadership style, CAR, and related outcomes in East Asia and other regions will provide a valuable contribution to the field.

Data availability statement

Ethics statement.

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by Research Ethics Committee from Hong Kong Baptist University. Written informed consent to participate in this study was provided by the participants’ legal guardian/next of kin.

Author contributions

HJ designed the computational framework and got involved in every part of the research. SK helped to develop the framework, analyzed the data, and wrote the results. AL helped to write the “Introduction” and “Discussion” of this research. YJ and JZ were in charge of data collection and also helped to write the literature reviews. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Home > Theses and Dissertations > 3097

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

An evaluation of the effects of the coach-athlete relationship on athlete mental health.

Corey Rae Phillips , University of Nevada, Las Vegas Follow

Degree Type

Degree name.

Master of Arts (MA)

First Committee Member

Bradley Donohue

Second Committee Member

Rachael Robnett

Third Committee Member

Kimberly Barchard

Fourth Committee Member

Nancy Lough

Number of Pages

There is a demand to target the mental health needs of collegiate athletes, who are

considered to be at-risk for physiological injuries, psychological disturbances, and

academic problems. Due to the dynamic nature of the coach-athlete relationship,

assessing the impact coaches have on athletes’ psychological wellbeing is imperative to

shift the way mental health is addressed within this population. The current study aims to

address the relationship between perceived problems in the coach-athlete relationship and

mental health of college students who participate in organized sport. I hypothesize that

problems in the relationship have serious implications for athletes and mental health

providers in that an athlete’s perception of problems in the coach-athlete relationship will

predict more mental health problems, substance use, and stress than athletes who do not

identify problems in the coach-athlete relationship. In addition, the current study aims to

understand gender related differences in mental health complaints, substance use, and

perception of problems within the coach-athlete relationship. I hypothesize that male and

female athletes will report differences in their experience of these three domains.

Athletes; Coach; Coach-Athlete Relationship; Mental Health; Sport; Sport Psychology

• Disciplines

Clinical Psychology

File Format

Degree grantor.

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Repository Citation

Phillips, Corey Rae, "An Evaluation of the Effects of the Coach-Athlete Relationship on Athlete Mental Health" (2017). UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones . 3097. http://dx.doi.org/10.34917/11156789

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Home > ETDS > DISSERTATIONS > 2312

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

The coach-athlete relationship as a predictor of self-regulation, academic self-efficacy, and aggression among student-athletes with exposure to community violence.

Keoshia Worthy Follow

Date of Award

Fall 9-1-2017

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

PhD Counseling Psychology

Professional Psychology and Family Therapy

Pamela Foley, Ph.D.

Committee Member

John Smith, Ed.D.

Daniel Cruz, Ph.D.

Thomas Massarelli, Ph.D.

Athletes, Coach-Athelete Relationship, Community Violence, African American males

Although several studies have investigated the effects of the coach-athlete (C-A)relationship, minimal attention has been given to the effects of the relationship on the behavior of college athletes outside of sport. The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate the coach–athlete relationship and its connection to the student–athlete’s behavior outside of sport and academic self-efficacy for athletes with exposure to community violence. This information can contribute to the discussion on the attachment relationship between coach and athlete, as well as add an in-depth understanding of the value of the relationship beyond its effects in sport.

A simultaneous multiple regression was used to evaluate the relationship between the quality of the C–A relationship, self-regulation, academic self-efficacy, and reactive and proactive aggression. The participants included African American male student athletes competing in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), participating in basketball at a four-year university or college, and who self-identified as living in a high-crime environment. Results from the study indicate that when athletes report a high-quality relationship with their coach, they showed a higher level of academic self-efficacy and self-regulation and a low level of reactive and proactive aggression. The findings from this study suggest that the C–A relationship is another relationship outside of the family-of-origin that can contribute to the athlete’s development. The findings from this study promote the field of psychology by identifying another important variable that can help reduce negative outcomes for young Black men: the coach–athlete relationship.

Recommended Citation

Worthy, Keoshia, "The Coach-Athlete Relationship as a Predictor of Self-Regulation, Academic Self-Efficacy, and Aggression Among Student-Athletes with Exposure to Community Violence" (2017). Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs) . 2312. https://scholarship.shu.edu/dissertations/2312

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Coach-athlete Relationship'

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Almeida, Sara. "What makes up the Coach-Athlete Relationship?" Thesis, University of Southampton, 2018. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/422156/.

Lorimer, Ross. "Empathic accuracy in the coach-athlete relationship." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2008. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/14015.

Sellars, Christopher N. "The coach and the athlete : an attributional analysis." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2002. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/34799.

Joubert, Pierre. "Accountability under the coach-athlete relationship in sport." Diss., University of Pretoria, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/65663.

Jowett, Sophia. "The psychology of interpersonal relationships in sport : the coach-athlete relationship." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.342012.

Manley, Andrew John. "Expectancies and their consequences within the coach-athlete relationship : an athlete-centred investigation." Thesis, University of Chichester, 2009. http://eprints.chi.ac.uk/816/.

Gisslén, Sofie, and Elin Sundström. "COMMUNICATION AND HIGH QUALITY COACH-ATHLETE RELATIONSHIP : THE MODERATING ROLE OF ATHLETE ATTACHMENT." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Institutionen för psykologi, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-159658.

Suomela, Tobias. "Coach-Athlete Relationship & Engagement : Sambandsanalys på unga tävlingsidrottare." Thesis, Örebro universitet, Hälsoakademin, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-16203.

Ahmad, Hasan. "The coach-athlete relationship in the Middle East : cultural considerations." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2014. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/15237.

Yang, Xin. "Understanding the coach-athlete relationship from a cross-cultural perspective." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2011. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/9088.

Rhind, Daniel J. "Measuring and maintaining the quality of the coach-athlete relationship." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2008. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/16311.

Christoffer, Sundell. "Athlete-coach and athlete-peer relationship in the junior-to-senior-transition in ice hockey." Thesis, Högskolan i Halmstad, Akademin för hälsa och välfärd, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-28780.

Krukowska, Aleksandra. "The interplay between coach transformational leadership and coach-athlete relationship in supporting athletes' positive psychological outcomes." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2016. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/23220.

Bolland, Benjamin James. "Interpersonal communication within the coach-athlete relationship in table tennis dyads." Thesis, University of Leeds, 2015. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.713481.

Olympiou, Alkistis. "Athletes' perceptions of the motivational climate and the coach-athlete relationship." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2005. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/7816.

Haikarainen, Jennica, and Tove Stenberg. "The role of teammate burnout on athlete burnout: The mediating effect of coach-athlete relationship quality." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Institutionen för psykologi, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-148306.

Sappington, Ryan Troy. "Unpacking the Coach-Athlete Relationship: The Role of Athlete Coping Skills Within a Framework of Self-Determination." Master's thesis, Temple University Libraries, 2015. http://cdm16002.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p245801coll10/id/325149.

Goffena, Jordan D. "The relationship between coaches' leadership behavior and athletes' self-regulated learning." Miami University / OhioLINK, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1438769391.

Sandström, Elin. "REFLECTIONS ON ATHLETE-COACH RELATIONSHIP IN THE COURSE OF ATHLETIC CAREER: ATHLETES’ PERSPECTIVE." Thesis, Högskolan i Halmstad, Sektionen för hälsa och samhälle (HOS), 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-19743.

Davis, Louise. "The application of attachment theory in the examination of the coach-athlete relationship." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2012. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/10151.

Haleem, Hussain, and n/a. "Running in pain : an autoethnography of power, coercion and injury in coach-athlete relationship." University of Otago. School of Physical Education, 2006. http://adt.otago.ac.nz./public/adt-NZDU20060901.135917.

Czekanski, William Andrew. "Social Exchange in Intercollegiate Athletics: An Exploration of Exchange Ideologies in the Coach-Student-Athlete Dyad." The Ohio State University, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1336664431.

Vollenhoven, Tarryn. "The psychological effects of the athlete-coach relationship on performance: The lived experiences of female university athletes." University of the Western Cape, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/6862.

Querfurth-Böhnlein, Sydney Carola [Verfasser], and Bernd [Akademischer Betreuer] Strauß. "Trust in the coach - athlete relationship through digital communication / Sydney Carola Querfurth-Böhnlein ; Betreuer: Bernd Strauß." Münster : Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Münster, 2019. http://d-nb.info/1180496418/34.

Dowdell, Trevor John, and N/A. "Measuring Sports Class Learning Climates - the Development of the Sports Class Environment Scale." Griffith University. School of Education and Professional Studies, 2007. http://www4.gu.edu.au:8080/adt-root/public/adt-QGU20071217.121601.

Dowdell, Trevor John. "Measuring Sports Class Learning Climates - the Development of the Sports Class Environment Scale." Thesis, Griffith University, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/365757.

Geholm, Jakob. "Coach-atlet relationens kvalité och faktorer för överträning hos svenska CrossFit-utövare : Påverkar svenska CrossFit-utövares upplevda relation med deras coach graden av faktorer som kan relateras till överträning?" Thesis, Umeå universitet, Idrottsmedicin, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-149371.

Felber, Charbonneau Evelyne. "Parental Involvement in Sport During Early-Mid Adolescence: Perspectives from Parent-Child Dyads." Thesis, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/36633.

Samawi, Anton. "Kampsportsutövaren och självbestämmandeteorin: en studie om svenska tonåringars motivation till att träna taekwondo." Thesis, Malmö universitet, Fakulteten för lärande och samhälle (LS), 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-34624.

Åslund, Pierre. "Utforskandet av relationen mellan idrottsrelaterad utbrändhet och tränare- aktiv relationen bland idrottsgymnasieelever." Thesis, Örebro universitet, Hälsoakademin, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-21465.

Oliveira, Mauricio dos Santos de. "A microcultura de um ginásio de treinamento de ginástica artística feminina de alto rendimento." Universidade de São Paulo, 2014. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/39/39133/tde-11072014-104153/.

Meireles, Livia Gomes Viana. "Empatia e treinadores esportivos brasileiros: um estudo exploratório." Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, 2014. http://www.bdtd.uerj.br/tde_busca/arquivo.php?codArquivo=8362.

Barnes, Kiki Baker. "The Relationship Between Head Coaches’ Influence and Student Engagement of NCAA DI Women Basketball Players: Implications for Student-Athlete Success." ScholarWorks@UNO, 2014. http://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1901.

Hayden, Dorothy L. "Female and Male Athletic Coaches and Female High School Athletes Perception of Sexual Harassment and the Incidence among Female High School Athletes." Diss., Counseling, Human and Organizational Studies, George Washington University, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/1961/115.

The study population included male and female athletic coaches currently coaching a female high school athletic team and female college students who participated in high school athletics.

This researcher, in order to accommodate the study population and research questions, adapted the Sexual Harassment Survey (1995) by Margery J. Holman, Ph.D. Female student athletes and male and female coaches responded to survey questions on demographics and their perceptions and understanding of described behaviors. The student athletes completed an additional section of the survey pertaining to their experience of sexual harassment.

Descriptive statistics (including frequencies and percentages as well as means and standard deviations) and inferential statistics (One-Way Analysis of Variance with a Scheffe test of significance) were used to analyze the data.

A comparison of the responses of all three groups (female athletes, male coaches and female coaches) to questions pertaining to perceptions of sexual harassment indicated agreement among the groups in the identification of inappropriate behaviors. However, there was a significant difference in the level of agreement for seven described behaviors. In general, male and female coaches agreed with each other more often than with female athletes when identifying the behaviors associated with sexual harassment. The investigation of incidence indicated that female athletes experienced more behaviors associated with sexual harassment from male coaches than from female coaches. Understanding that the same behaviors were identified by female athletes, male coaches and female coaches, it can be concluded that inappropriate behavior was consistently identified, but the identification of sexual harassment does not necessarily diminish the incidence of sexual harassment.

Johansson, Susanne. "Sexual Relationships between Athletes and Coaches : Love, Sexual Consent, and Abuse." Doctoral thesis, Gymnastik- och idrottshögskolan, GIH, Institutionen för idrotts- och hälsovetenskap, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:gih:diva-4890.

McCormick, Harvey Charles Jr. "Strength coach-athlete relationships and self-efficacy." Thesis, Boston University, 2002. https://hdl.handle.net/2144/32804.

Steege, Eric E. "The role of emotional intelligence on coach-athlete relationships and motivational climate." Morgantown, W. Va. : [West Virginia University Libraries], 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10450/10237.

Wildman, Jonathan C. "The athlete leader role : interaction of gender, sport type, and coaching style /." Access full text online:, 2006. http://digital.library.unt.edu/permalink/meta-dc-5486:1.

Portenga, Steve. "Critical conditions of a positive team environment /." free to MU campus, to others for purchase, 2004. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/mo/fullcit?p3144451.

Blom, Lindsey C. "Understanding the coach-athlete dyad the impact of educational interventions on perceptions and psychosocial variables /." Morgantown, W. Va. : [West Virginia University Libraries], 2005. https://etd.wvu.edu/etd/controller.jsp?moduleName=documentdata&jsp%5FetdId=3981.

Rocchi, Meredith. "Contexts, Motivation, and Coaching Behaviours – A Self-Determination Theory Perspective on Coach-Athlete Relationships." Thesis, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/35129.

Maitland, Alison. "Organisational culture and coach-athlete relationships : an ethnographic study of an elite rowing club." Thesis, Brunel University, 2012. http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/7192.

K'Bidy, Julie. "Comprendre - Transformer - Comprendre : Analyse de la dynamique interactive entraîneurs experts – badistes de Haut Niveau et étude de l’impact d’un dispositif transformatif sur le développement professionnel des entraîneurs experts." Thesis, Bordeaux, 2021. http://www.theses.fr/2021BORD0006.

Bennie, Andrew. "Effective Coaching in Cricket, Rugby League and Rugby Union: A Qualitative Investigation Involving Professional Coaches and Players from Australia." Faculty of Education and Social Work, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/5739.

Kinderevičiūtė, Goda. "Trenerio ir sportininko tarpusavio santykių ypatumai meninėje gimnastikoje." Bachelor's thesis, Lithuanian Academic Libraries Network (LABT), 2013. http://vddb.laba.lt/obj/LT-eLABa-0001:E.02~2013~D_20130910_082915-72645.

Norris, Maxwell R. "An analysis of coaching dimensions and their impact on athlete motivation and affective learning." CardinalScholar 1.0, 2010. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/1569023.

Buckley, Shannon K. "Coach's [sic] influence on the career development of student athletes." Virtual Press, 1997. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/1045621.

Wildman, Jonathan C. Jr. "The Athlete Leader Role: Interaction of Gender, Sport Type, and Coaching Style." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2006. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc5486/.

Frazer, Kirk Jack. "Factors affecting coaches with stress and burnout." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 2005. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/2896.

Croft, Chris. "Factors influencing Big 12 Conference college basketball male student-athletes' selection of a university." To access this resource online via ProQuest Dissertations and Theses @ UTEP, 2008. http://0-proquest.umi.com.lib.utep.edu/login?COPT=REJTPTU0YmImSU5UPTAmVkVSPTI=&clientId=2515.