Measuring the coach’s compassion through the eyes of their athletes: validity of The Compassionate Coach Scale as perceived by the adolescent athletes

ABSTRACT

Objective

This study aimed to adapt and test psychometric properties of the CCS-PA in adolescent athletes (The Compassionate Coach Scale as Perceived by the Adolescent Athletes – CCS-PAA).

Method

This study sample included 217 Portuguese adolescent athletes, who practiced different sports and completed self-reported instruments. The factor structure of the CCS-PAA was explored (through Confirmatory Factor Analysis) and its psychometric properties, convergent, external and discriminant validities, and gender invariance were examined.

Results

Results confirmed the plausibility of the hierarchical structure of the scale, constituted by one higher-order factor (perceived coach’s compassionate qualities) and two lower-order factors (compassionate engagement and compassionate actions). This scale showed high internal consistency, convergent, discriminant validities and it was invariant across gender. CCS-PAA demonstrated associations with social safeness, self-criticism, self-reassurance, perception of performance, and psychological well-being.

Conclusions

CCS-PAA seems to be a reliable measure to assess adolescent athletes’ perceptions of their coach’s compassionate qualities. This scale could be an important tool in the sports context, as it can help to identify a relationship between coach and athlete based on comprehension, support, and kindness in difficult and suffering times for the athlete, especially in a challenging stage of development: adolescence.

Key Points

What is already known about this topic:

1. The importance of compassion supporting mental health in the sports context has been underlined.

2. A coach-athlete relationship based on compassion has been associated with indicators of mental health.

3. The importance of exploring the coaches’ compassionate skills towards athletes has been highlighted.

What this topic adds:

1. This study validated the measure for assessing an athlete’s perception of a coach’s compassionate qualities for the adolescent population.

2. CCS-PAA demonstrated associations with social safeness, self-criticism, self-reassurance, perception of performance, and well-being.

3. CCS-PAA could be an important tool in the sports context, helping to identify a coach-athlete relationship based on compassion in difficult times for the athlete, especially in a challenging stage of development: adolescence.

KEYWORDS:

• Adolescents
• athletes
• coach
• compassion
• confirmatory factor analysis
• sport

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data are not publicly available due to restrictions (e.g., their containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) [Grant Number SFRH/BD/143410/2019].