Coaches Coaching Psychological Skills-Why Not? A Framework and Questionnaire Development

Area of Science:

• Sports Psychology
• Psychological Skills Training
• Coaching Science

Background:

• Coaches play a crucial role in athlete development.
• Effective delivery of psychological skills (PS) by coaches is vital for performance and well-being.
• Existing measures for coaching PS are limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate questionnaires for assessing coaches' delivery of psychological skills.
• To establish a conceptual framework for coaching PS, differentiating fundamental and needs-supportive approaches.
• To provide robust measurement tools for future research in coaching psychology.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative investigation to establish a conceptual framework.
• Development of two questionnaires: Coaching of PS-Fundamental (CPS-F) and Coaching of PS-Needs Supportive (CPS-NS).
• Bayesian structural equation modeling for confirmatory factor analysis across two samples, including tests for validity and invariance.

Main Results:

• The CPS-F questionnaire demonstrated an excellent fit for a 3-factor model.
• The CPS-NS questionnaire showed an excellent single-factor fit.
• Both questionnaires exhibited strong concurrent, discriminant, and predictive validity, supported by significant relationships with related constructs.

Conclusions:

• The validated CPS-F and CPS-NS questionnaires provide reliable measures for coaching psychological skills.
• These tools will advance research understanding of how coaches effectively implement PS.
• The findings contribute to the scientific literature on coaching effectiveness and athlete development.