Interdependence and Social Identity in Youth Sport Teams

Abstract

The degree to which team members believe that they rely on one another to perform successfully and achieve collective outcomes may relate to perceptions about the extent that they integrate the group within their own identity. This study examined the relationship between interdependence and social identity among 422 high school team sport athletes. Youth completed measures of task and outcome interdependence, as well as social identity. Multilevel analyses revealed that higher perceptions of outcome interdependence at an individual and team level predicted greater social identity. Results highlight the role of outcome interdependence on athletes’ perceptions of social identity in sport teams.

Notes

Confirmatory factor analysis of the interdependence data supported the factorial validity of the adapted interdependence measure, χ²(34) = 33.57, p =.48; comparative fit index (CFI) = 1.00, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.00, 90% confidence interval (CI) [0.000, 0.035], standardized root mean square residual (SRMR) = 0.03. The data also demonstrated adequate factorial validity for the adapted social identity measure, χ²(47) = 192.19 (p <.05); CFI = 0.90, RMSEA = 0.086, 90% CI [0.073, 0.098], SRMR = 0.083.

Given the negative direction of the beta, we suspected that this finding was a result of a suppressor variable (Tabachnick & Fidell, 2007). As such, we reran the multilevel analysis with only task interdependence entered as a predictor at Level 2. The findings confirmed our suspicion as the beta for team task interdependence was positive (b =.14) and no longer significant, implying that one of the other variables was serving as a suppressor variable leading to the significant negative relationship (Tabachnick & Fidell, 2007).