Psychological and personal predictors of leadership behavior in female soccer athletes

Abstract

This study was conducted to identify the personal and psychological characteristics which are associated with emergent team leadership among female athletes. High school soccer players (N = 106) completed a series of inventories designed to assess their perceptions of competence, sex-role orientation, competitive trait anxiety, and global self-worth. Athletes' actual sport competence was measured through Coaches' ratings. Leadership behavior was assessed through the use of personal, peer, and coach ratings on the Sport Leadership Behavior Inventory (SLBI). Multivariate and univariate regression analyses revealed that athletes who were high in perceived soccer competence, femininity, and masculinity rated themselves higher in leadership ability than did athletes who scored low on these same psychological characteristics. Athletes who were rated high in leadership ability by their peers exhibited high levels of competitive trait anxiety, masculinity, skill, and penxived soccer competence. In contrast, Coaches' ratings of athletes' leadership tendencies were Bssociated primarily with the players' actual skill competence. Finally, additional analyses indicated that athletes who played in central field positions were more apt to be rated high in leadership ability by themselves and their coaches than were athletes from non-central field positions. These results supported the study hypothesis that certain psychological and personal characteristics can be used to identie peer group leaders in interscholastic soccer contexts.