The mediating roles of pre-competitive coping and affective states in the relationships between coach-athlete relationship, satisfaction and attainment of achievement goals

ABSTRACT

The study is aimed to explore the relationship between coach-athlete relationship, precompetitive coping and affective states, satisfaction and attainment of achievement goals. A sample of 567 French athletes (Mage = 22.10; SD = 5.66; 377 men and 190 women) involved in 75 training groups participated in the study and completed a series of self-report measures in a temporal design with three measure points. Results of multilevel analyses revealed that the coach-athlete dyad (level 2; between-person level of analysis or training groups) and task-oriented coping (level 1; within person level of analysis or individuals) significantly predicted goal attainment (level 1). Moreover, the results of the Sobel test revealed that task-oriented coping (level 1) marginally mediated the relationship between coach-athlete dyad (level 2) and sport satisfaction (level 1). Besides, the coach-athlete dyad (level 1) and Intensity of positive affect (PA) mediated the relationship between coach-athlete dyad and goal attainment. Finally, the coach-athlete dyad (level 1) and Intensity of PA mediated the relationship between coach-athlete dyad and satisfaction (level 1). In conclusion, the display of Coach-Athlete relationship strategies may enhance higher levels of precompetitive task-oriented coping, intensity of PA, goal attainment and satisfaction. Subsequently, coaches and practitioners should focus their training on enhancing coach-athlete relationship as a crucial part of training in order to perform in competitions.

KEYWORDS:

• Competitive settings
• coaching
• goals
• wellbeing

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data are available on reasonable request to the corresponding author.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.