Exploring Life Satisfaction of Sport Coaches in Greece

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate life satisfaction of coaches who work in Greek amateur sport clubs in order to determine if there were any differences based upon certain personal and professional descriptors. The participants were 402 coaches of 11 sports (six individual and five team sports) of various levels. An adapted form of the SOLS questionnaire (Scale of Life Satisfaction) was used. A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post hoc Scheffe multiple comparisons were conducted. The study revealed that there were statistically significant differences in the level of life satisfaction among coaches, based on their age and marital status. No statistically significant differences based on their professional descriptors were revealed. The coaches of the study were satisfied with their lives. From a managerial point of view, it is important to maintain coaches’ high level of life satisfaction, since, according to the spillover hypothesis, life satisfaction may influence job satisfaction, which plays a vital role to the coaching process. Finally, the need for creating a Coach Satisfaction Scale for the Greek Sport Amateur Environment emerged.