HomePsychology and Education: A Multidisciplinary Journalvol. 7 no. 6 (2023)

The Mediating Role of Sports Emotions in Coach-Athlete Relationship and Athletes’ Sports Engagement

Jet Longakit | Deljun Rodriguez | Felix Aque Jr. | Yasmina Alag | Henry E. Lemana II

Discipline: Education

 

Abstract:

An increasing number of studies have shown the salient effect of pleasant emotions in sports and its association with sports performance. However, little is known about how the coach and athlete relationship affects athletes’ engagement through pleasant emotions. This study scrutinized the mediating role of positive emotions on the relationship between the coach-athlete relationship and the sports engagement of athletes. A total sample of 227 consisting of 60.8% male (N=138) and female (39.2%; N=89) tertiary athletes of diverse sports completed an online questionnaire assessing the coach-athlete relationship, sports engagement, and sports emotions. The results revealed that pleasant emotions mediate the link between the coach-athlete relationship and the sports engagement of athletes. These findings show that athletes with strong connections with their coaches are more likely to experience greater levels of pleasant emotions, resulting in increased sports engagement of athletes.



References:

  1. Adie, J. W., Duda, J. L., & Ntoumanis, N. (2012). Perceived coachautonomy support, basic need satisfaction and the well-and ill-being of elite y ou th so ccer p lay e rs : A l o n g i t u d in a l investigation. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 13(1), 51-59.
  2. Annesi, J. J., Faigenbaum, A. D., & Westcott, W. L. (2010). Relations of transtheoretical model stage, self-efficacy, and voluntary physical activity in African American preadolescents. Research quarterly for exercise and sport, 81(2), 239-244.
  3. Arnold, R., & Fletcher, D. (2014). Confirmatory factor analysis of the Sport Emotion Questionnaire in organizational environments. J o u rn a l of S p o rt s S c i en ce s , 33 (2 ), 1 6 9 – 1 7 9 . h ttp s://do i.o rg/1 0.1080 /026 40 414 .201 4.9 5552 0
  4. Avci, K., Çepikkurt, F., & Kale, E. (2018). Examination of the relationship between coach-athlete communication levels and perceived motivational climate for volleyball players. Universal Journal of Educational Research 6(2): 346-353, 2018. https://doi.org/10.13189/ujer.2018.060218.
  5. Bates, S., Greene, D., & O’Quinn, L. (2021). Virtual sport-based positive youth development during the COVID-19 pandemic. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 38(4), 437-448. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-021-00774-9
  6. Berdychevsky, L., Gibson, H. J., & Bell, H. L. (2013). Girlfriend getaways and women’s well-being. Journal of Leisure Research, 45(5), 602–623. https://doi.org/10.18666/jlr-2013-v45-i5-4365
  7. Broughton, K. A., Payne, L., & Liechty, T. (2016). An exploration of older men’s social lives and well-being in the context of a coffee g r o u p . L e i s u r e S c i e n c e s , 39 ( 3 ) , 261 – 2 7 6 . h ttp s://do i.o rg/1 0.1080 /014 90 400 .201 6.1 1782 00
  8. Choi, H., Jeong, Y., & Kim, S.-K. (2020). The relationship between coaching behavior and athlete burnout: Mediating effects of communication and the coach–athlete relationship. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(22), 8618. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17228618
  9. Curran, T., Hill, A. P., Hall, H. K., & Jowett, G. E. (2015). Relationships between the coach-created motivational climate and athlete engagement in youth sport. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 37(2), 193–198. https://doi.org/10.1123/jsep.2014-0203
  10. De Francisco, C., Arce, C., Graña, M., & Sánchez-Romero, E. I. (2018). Measurement invariance and validity of the Athlete Engagement Questionnaire. International Journal of Sports Science & C o a c h i n g , 1 3 ( 6 ) , 1 0 0 8 – 1 0 1 4 . h ttp s://do i.o rg/1 0.1177 /174 79 5411 8787 488
  11. DeFreese, J. D., & Smith, A. L. (2013). Areas of worklife and the athlete burnout-engagement relationship. Journal of Applied Sport P s y c h o l o g y , 2 5 ( 2 ) , 1 8 0 – 1 9 6 . h ttp s://do i.o rg/1 0.1080 /104 13 200 .201 2.7 0541 4
  12. Doyle, J. P., Filo, K., Lock, D., Funk, D. C., & McDonald, H. (2016). Exploring PERMA in spectator sport: Applying positive psychology to examine the individual-level benefits of sport consumption. Sport Management Review, 19(5), 506–519. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smr.2016.04.007
  13. Eccles, D. W., Ward, P., Woodman, T., Janelle, C. M., Le Scanff, C., Ehrlinger, J., Castanier, C., & Coombes, S. A. (2011). Where’s the emotion? How sport psychology can inform research on emotion in human factors. Human factors, 53(2), 180-202.
  14. Eklund, R.C. & DeFreese, J.D. (2015). Athlete burnout: What we know, what we could know, and how we can find out more. IJASS (International Journal of Applied Sports Sciences), 27(2), 63–75. https://doi.org/10.24985/ijass.2015.27.2.63
  15. Fredrickson, B. L. (2004). The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society B. B io lo g ica l S cien ce s, 3 5 9 (1 4 4 9 ) , 1367 – 1 3 7 7 . h ttp s://do i.o rg/1 0.1098 /rstb .20 04.1512
  16. Fredrickson, B. L. (2013). Positive emotions broaden and build. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 47, 1–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-407236-7.00001-2
  17. Friesen, A. P., Lane, A. M., Devonport, T. J., Sellars, C. N., Stanley, D. N., & Beedie, C. J. (2013). Emotion in sport: Considering interpersonal regulation strategies. International review of sport and exercise psychology, 6(1), 139-154
  18. Garland, E. L., Gaylord, S. A., & Fredrickson, B. L. (2011). Positive reappraisal mediates the stress-reductive effects of mindfulness: An upward spiral process. Mindfulness , 2 (1), 59–67. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-011-0043-8
  19. Gullu, S., Keskin, B., Ates, O., & Hanbay, E. (2020). Coach-athlete relationship and sport passion in individual sports. Acta Kinesiologica, 14(1),9-15.
  20. Hodge, K., Lonsdale, C., & Jackson, S. A. (2009). Athlete engagement in elite sport: An exploratory investigation of antecedents and consequences. The Sport Psychologist, 23(2), 186– 202. https://doi.org/10.1123/tsp.23.2.186
  21. Johnson, L. K., Nadler, R., Carswell, J., & Minda, J. P. (2021). Using the broaden-and-build theory to test a model of mindfulness, affect, and stress. Mindfulness , 12(1), 1696-1701. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-021-01633-5
  22. Jones, M. V., Lane, A. M., Bray, S. R., Uphill, M., & Catlin, J. (2005). Development and validation of the sport emotion questionnaire. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 27(4), 407–431. https://doi.org/10.1123/jsep.27.4.407
  23. Jowett, S. (2017). Coaching effectiveness: The coach–athlete relationship at its heart. Current Opinion in Psychology, 16(1), 154– 158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.05.006
  24. Jowett, S. & Ntoumanis, N. (2004). The coach-athlete relationship questionnaire (CART-Q): Development and initial validation. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports, 14(4), 245–257. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0838.2003.00338.x
  25. Jowett, S., & Carpenter, P. (2015). The concept of rules in thecoachathlete relationship. Sports Coaching Review, 4(1), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/21640629.2015.1106145
  26. Kauffman, C., & Hodgetts, W. H. (2016). Model agility: Coaching effectiveness and four perspectives on a case study. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 68(2), 157–176. https://doi.org/10.1037/cpb0000062
  27. Kerr-Cumbo, R. (2011). Athletes’ and coaches’ perceptions of the coach’s behaviour [Master’s thesis, Loughborough University].
  28. Krueger. (2012). Seligman’s Flourish: The Second Coming. The America n Jou rnal of Psycho log y , 125 (1), 121. h ttp s://do i.o rg/1 0.5406 /amerjp sy c.125 .1 .012 1
  29. Laborde, S., Dosseville, F., Guillén, F., & Chávez, E. (2014). Validity of the trait emotional intelligence questionnaire in sports and its links with performance satisfaction. Psychology of Sport and E x e r c i s e , 1 5 ( 5 ) , 4 8 1 – 4 9 0 . h ttp s://do i.o rg/1 0.1016 /j.p sych spo rt.2014 .05 .00 1
  30. Lane, A. M., Beedie, C. J., Jones, M. V., Uphill, M., & Devonport, T. J. (2012). The BASES expert statement on emotion regulation in sport. Journal of sports sciences, 30(11), 1189-1195.
  31. Martin, R. J., & Nelson, S. (2014). Fantasy sports, real money: Exploration of the relationship between fantasy sports participation and gambling-related problems. Addictive Behaviors, 39(10), 1377- 1382.
  32. McGee, V., & DeFreese, J. D. (2019). The coach-athlete relationship and athlete psychological outcomes. Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology, 13(1), 152–174. https://doi.org/10.1123/jcsp.2018-0010
  33. Mirehie, M., & Gibson, H. J. (2019). Women’s participation in snow-sports and sense of well-being: A positive psychology ap p ro ach . Jou rnal of Leisu re Resea rch , 1–19. h ttp s://do i.o rg/1 0.1080 /002 22 216 .201 9.1 7024 85
  34. Nicholls, A. R., Levy, A. R., Jones, L., Meir, R., Radcliffe, J. N., & Perry, J. L. (2016). Committed relationships and enhanced threat levels: Perceptions of coach behavior, the coach–athlete relationship, stress appraisals, and coping among athletes. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 11(1), 16–26.
  35. Podlog, L., Gustafsson, H., Skoog, T., Gao, Z., Westin, M., Werner, S., & Alricsson, M. (2015). Need satisfaction, motivation, and engagement among high-performance youth athletes: A multiple mediation analysis. International Journal of Sport and Exercise P s y c h o l o g y , 1 3 ( 4 ) , 4 1 5 – 4 3 3 . h ttp s://do i.o rg/1 0.1080 /161 21 97x .201 4.9 9934 6
  36. Sabiston, C. M., Jewett, R., Ashdown-Franks, G., Belanger, M., Brunet, J., O’Loughlin, E., O’Loughlin, J. (2016) Number of years of team and individual sport participation during adolescence and depressive symptoms in early adulthood. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology 38(1), 105-110
  37. Samios, C., Abel, L. M., & Rodzik, A. K. (2013). The protective role of compassion satisfaction for therapists who work with sexual violence survivors: an application of the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. Anxiety, Stress & Coping, 26(6), 610–623. https://doi.org/10.1080/10615806.2013.784278
  38. Stenseng, F., & Phelps, J. (2013). Leisure and life satisfaction: the role of passion and life domain outcomes. World Leisure Journal, 55(4), 320–332. doi:10.1080/04419057.2013.836558
  39. Stenseng, F., Forest, J., & Curran, T. (2014). Positive emotions in recreational sport activities: The role of passion and belongingness. Journal of Happiness Studies , 16 (5), 1117–1129. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-014-9547-y
  40. Stifter, C., Augustine, M., & Dollar, J. (2019). The role of positive emotions in child development: A developmental treatment of the broaden and build theory. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 15(1), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2019.1695877
  41. Sullivan, P. J., & Short, S. (2011). Further operationalization of intra-team communication in sports: An updated version of the scale of effective communication in team sports (SECTS-2). Journal of A p p li ed S o cia l P s y ch o l o g y , 41 (2 ), 471 – 4 8 7. h ttp s://do i.o rg/1 0.1111 /j.1559 -1816 .20 10 .007 22.x
  42. Thompson, M. A., Nicholls, A. R., Toner, J., Perry, J. L., & Burke, R. (2021). Pleasant emotions widen thought–action repertoires, develop long-term resources, and improve reaction time performance: A multistudy examination of the broaden-and-build theory among athletes. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 43(2), 155–170. https://doi.org/10.1123/jsep.2020-0192
  43. Valbuena, J., Saunders, J., Rice, V., & Aumond, E. (2014). Athlete engagement: A qualitative investigation of the Filipino athlete. S i l l i m a n J o u r n a l , 5 5 ( 2 ) , 1 - 3 1 . http://sillimanjournal.su.edu.ph/index.php/sj/article/view/113
  44. Vella, S. A., Oades, L. G., & Crowe, T. P. (2013). The relationship between coach leadership, the coach–athlete relationship, team success, and the positive developmental experiences of adolescent soccer players. Physical Education & Sport Pedagogy, 18(5), 549– 561. https://doi.org/10.1080/17408989.2012.726976
  45. Vella, S., Oades, L., & Crowe, T. (2011). The role of the coach in facilitating positive youth development: Moving from theory to practice. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 23(1), 33–48. https://doi.org/10.1080/10413200.2010.511423
  46. Wagstaff, C. R. (2014). Emotion regulation and sport performance. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 36(4), 401- 412.
  47. Wekesser, M. M., Harris, B. S., Langdon, J., & Wilson, C. H. (2021). Coaches’ impact on youth athletes’ intentions to continue sport participation: The mediational influence of the coach–athlete relationship. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 16(3), 490–499. https://doi.org/10.1177/1747954121991817
  48. Wilson, N. C., & Khoo, S. (2013). Benefits and barriers to sports participation for athletes with disabilities: The case of Malaysia. D i s a b i l i t y & S o c i e t y , 28 ( 8 ) , 1132 – 1 1 4 5 . h ttp s://do i.o rg/1 0.1080 /096 87 599 .201 2.7 5803 4