The Coach-Athlete Relationship and Athlete Psychological Health Outcomes (2016)
Undergraduate: Victoria McGee
Faculty Advisor: J.D. DeFreese
Department: Exercise & Sport Science
Athletes¿ relationships with their coaches have important implications for outcomes of psychological health including their burnout and engagement. Further examination of these associations is needed to identify what aspects of athletes¿ perceptions of the coach-athlete relationship are linked to their experiences of burnout and engagement. Our study purpose was to examine associations among athlete perceptions of the coach-athlete relationship and burnout and engagement across a competitive season. We hypothesized that athlete endorsement of higher levels of markers of the coach-athlete relationship (closeness, commitment, and complementarity) would be negatively associated with perceptions of burnout and positively associated with perceptions of engagement. Participants were female collegiate rowers (N=37; Mage=19.3 years, SD=1.18) who completed online self-report assessments of study variables across four seasonal survey waves. Participants reported moderate-to-high scores on the coach-athlete relationship, burnout, and engagement variables across all time points. Multilevel linear modeling analyses revealed closeness, one of the coach-athlete relationship markers, to be a significant predictor of global engagement but not global burnout. Commitment and complementarity were not significant predictors of either athlete burnout or engagement. Study results support the predictive impact of athlete perceptions of closeness with their coach to seasonal athlete engagement.