Colin D McLaren

Peer-Initiated Motivational Climate and Group Cohesion in Youth Sport

The purpose of the present study was to examine the reciprocal relationship between peer-initiated motivational climate and group cohesion. Measures of peer climate and cohesion were completed across the first half of a competitive season. Controlling for early season perceptions of the dependent variables, hierarchical regression results from 189 participants revealed that early season ego-related climate negatively predicted task cohesion near midseason (p <.01), and task cohesion at early season positively predicted task-related climate at midseason (p <.01). The current study offers preliminary insight into the direction of the relationships between the two constructs in competitive youth sport.

Team Member Communication and Perceived Cohesion in Youth Soccer

Although it is assumed that athletes need to consider the member-to-member interactions that take place within a team before drawing an accurate perception about the team’s level of cohesion, little research to date has addressed this assumption. The purpose of this study was to examine the intrateam communication and cohesion relationship to determine which types of communication would be associated with perceived task and social cohesiveness in a sample of youth athletes. Youth soccer players (N = 139, k = 13) completed measures of intrateam communication and task and social cohesion halfway through a competitive season. Separate multilevel analyses were run predicting task and social cohesion. For task cohesion, acceptance, positive conflict, and negative conflict communication emerged as significant predictors, p < .001, accounting for 40% of the total variance. For social cohesion, distinctiveness, positive conflict, and negative conflict communication were significant predictors, p < .001, accounting for 27% of the total variance. Findings provide initial evidence establishing a link between intrateam communication and cohesion in the youth sport context but more importantly suggest both similarities and differences with respect to the specific types of intrateam communication that are associated with task and social cohesion.

When a sense of “we” shapes the sense of “me”: exploring how groups impact running identity and behavior

Abstract Whereas running is an inherently independent form of exercise, it is often a social endeavor conducted in groups. We tested how group membership and social contexts were associated with running identities and behavior. In Study 1, 103 running group members read vignettes where they imagined training on their own or within their group. Group imagery participants reported stronger running identities and this effect was primarily evident among females. In Study 2, 227 runners reported running identity and behavior along with the extent that they run in formal and informal groups. Those who ran in both formal and informal groups reported stronger identities and increased behavior. These findings build upon identity theory to reveal how group membership is connected to personal identities.

Groupness, cohesion, and intention to return to sport: A study of intact youth teams:

The positive benefits for youth participating in sport have been well documented. Yet, keeping athletes returning to sport has been a concern. While various factors have been examined to explain this attrition, facets of the sport group experience have started to emerge. From a group perspective, it has been established that athlete intentions to return to a sport team the following season are positively associated with perceived team cohesion. While cohesion is a key group construct, other group factors are worthy of examination. The purpose of the current study was to build upon the research base by examining whether the relationship between cohesion and intention to return would be moderated by another group factor—the level of groupness ascribed to the team. At the end of a competitive season, youth soccer athletes (N = 156) completed measures of task cohesion, groupness, and intention to return to their team in the future. Results revealed that the task cohesion-intention to return relationship was significantly moderated by groupness, p = .03. Simple slopes analysis revealed that the strongest relationship between task cohesion and intention to return occurred under conditions of lower groupness. These initial results indicated that intention to return was highest when the team was perceived as higher in task cohesion, regardless of groupness perceptions. However, when the team was perceived to be lower in task cohesion, those who perceived their team as being more like a group indicated a greater willingness to return to the team in the future.