Exploring the relationship between perceived coaching styles and sport-confidence among college student-athletes

Based on Chelladurai and Carron's (1978) multidimensional model of sport leadership, this study examined the relationship between perceived coaching behaviors and athlete self-confidence among college student athletes. Two hundred and twenty-three athletes, representing seven team sports from a large northeastern university served as subjects. The athletes assessed their coach's leadership style and behaviors using the Leadership Scale for Sports (Chelladurai & Saleh, 1980), and their confidence using the Trait Sport-Confidence Inventory (Vealey, 1986). The five leader behaviors measured were: (a) training and instruction behavior, (b) democratic behavior, (c) autocratic behavior, (d) social support behavior, and (e) rewarding behavior.

It was hypothesized that there was a relationship between each of the perceived leader behaviors and athlete self-confidence. Multiple regression analysis revealed that when the behaviors were entered independently from one another, statistically significant relationships were found at the .05 and .001 level with all but autocratic behavior. Rewarding behavior yielded the best relationship with athlete self-confidence, accounting for 11% the variance. When the leader behaviors were regressed as a set by stepwise selection, rewarding behavior and social support behavior were the most important contributors affecting athlete self-confidence, accounting for 13% the variance.

Athlete self-confidence was most influenced by behaviors of the coach that praised athletic performance, in addition to behavior that expressed genuine concern for the athlete as an individual. Future directions for research are explored as well as implications for counselors who find themselves working with college athletic programs.

Note: Abstract extracted from PDF file via OCR.