Frank L. Smoll

A System for the Behavioral Assessment of Athletic Coaches

Abstract A behavioral assessment system for coding and analyzing the behaviors of athletic coaches in naturalistic settings is described. The Coaching Behavior Assessment System (CBAS) consists of 12 behavioral categories derived from content analyses of coaching behaviors during practices and games. The manner in which coders are trained and the CBAS used in field settings is described, and the results of several reliability studies are reported. These studies indicate that high scorer accuracy and interrater reliability can be attained. The potential use of the CBAS to extend the study of interpersonal behavior into the realm of sport psychology is also discussed.

Conjunctive moderator variables in vulnerability and resiliency research: life stress, social support and coping skills, and adolescent sport injuries

In life event research relating to vulnerability and resilience factors, single moderator variables have typically been the focus of study. Little is known about the ways in which moderator variables may interact with one another to increase vulnerability or resilience. We propose a distinction between conjunctive moderation, in which multiple moderators must co-occur in a specific combination or pattern to maximize a relation between a predictor and an outcome variable, and disjunctive moderation, in which any one of a number of moderators maximizes the predictor-criterion relation. Our results indicate that social support and psychological coping skills are statistically independent psychosocial resources and that they operate in a conjunctive manner to influence the relation between life stress and subsequent athletic injury in adolescents. Only athletes low in both coping skills and social support exhibited a significant stress-injury relation, and in that vulnerable subgroup, negative major life events accounted for up to 30% of the injury variance. Methodological considerations in the assessment of conjunctive moderator effects are discussed.

Self-esteem and children's reactions to youth sport coaching behaviors: A field study of self-enhancement processes.

Self-enhancement models posit a general motive to enhance self-regard that is believed to be particularly strong in people with low self-esteem. We extended previous laboratory research with college students to a field setting and studied the attraction responses of child athletes to coaches who differed in their observed behavior patterns during the sport season.

Reduction of children's sport performance anxiety through social support and stress-reduction training for coaches

Abstract A field experiment was conducted to assess the efficacy of a social-support and stress-reduction program intended to influence factors that affect performance anxiety in child athletes. Baseball coaches in an experimental condition received preseason training in which behavioral guidelines for reducing anxiety were presented and modeled. A no-treatment control group did not receive the coach training. Children (N = 152) who played for the two groups of coaches were interviewed and administered sport-specific trait anxiety scales pre- and postseason. A manipulation check demonstrated that trained coaches differed from controls in player-perceived behaviors in accordance with the goals of the intervention. They were also evaluated more positively by their players, their players reported having more fun, and their teams exhibited a higher level of attraction among players despite the fact that they did not differ from controls in won—lost records. Consistent with theory-based predictions, the intervention program significantly reduced childrens trait anxiety over the course of the season.

Is Winning Everything? The Relative Contributions of Motivational Climate and Won-Lost Percentage in Youth Sports

The purpose of this study was to examine the main and interactive effects of motivational climate and won-lost percentage upon young athletes’ evaluations of their coaches, enjoyment of their team experience, and perceived parental liking for the coach. A total of 268 male and female youth basketball players, aged 10 to 15 years, completed the Motivational Climate Scale for Youth Sports (Smith, Cumming, & Smoll, in press) and selected attitudinal scales relating to their sport enjoyment and their evaluations of their coach. Regular season won-lost percentages were calculated for each of the 50 teams. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to predict player evaluations of the coach. Attitudes toward the coach were positively associated with perceptions of a mastery-involved climate and negatively associated with perceptions of an ego-involved climate. Won-lost percentages positively predicted players’ evaluations of their coachs knowledge and teaching ability, but accounted for far less attitudinal variance than did the motivational climate measures. Consistent with earlier findings, young athletes’ sport enjoyment, and evaluations of their coach were more strongly related to coaching behaviors than to their teams won-lost record. No significant interactions involving winning and motivational climate were found.

Sensation seeking, stress, and adolescent injuries: a test of stress-buffering, risk-taking, and coping skills hypotheses

The potential stress-buffering effects of sensation seeking were assessed in a prospective study involving high school athletes. A significant positive relation between major negative sport-specific life events and subsequent injury time-loss occurred only for athletes low in sensation seeking. No evidence was obtained for a competing hypothesis that high sensation seeking would constitute an injury vulnerability factor by increasing risk-taking behaviors. Although low sensation seekers reported poorer stress management coping skills, there was no evidence that differences in coping efficacy mediated the injury vulnerability difference. Results indicate that sensation seeking is a stress-resiliency factor and suggest the utility of assessing relations between life stressors and outcomes that occur within the same environmental context.

Development and Validation of the Motivational Climate Scale for Youth Sports

The Motivational Climate Scale for Youth Sports (MCSYS) provides an age-appropriate measure of coach-initiated motivational climates in youth sports. Items have a readability level of grade 4.0 or below. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed that both child and adolescent athletes (ages 9–14) discriminate between mastery- and ego-involving coaching behaviors. The MCSYS demonstrated acceptable reliability and strong factorial validity. Construct validity research yielded predicted relations within a nomological net that included athletes’ achievement goal orientations, competitive trait anxiety, sport enjoyment and coach evaluations, intrinsic motivation, and self-esteem. In both white middle-class and low income minority samples, the mastery and ego subscales also proved sensitive to a coach intervention designed to promote the establishment of a mastery climate and a reduction of ego climate behaviors. We discuss use of the scale to, measure motivational climate at individual and team levels and the desirability of multi-level statistical analyses of climate data.

Enhancing Coach-Parent Relationships in Youth Sports: Increasing Harmony and Minimizing Hassle

The so-called “athletic triangle,” consisting of coach, athlete, and parent is a natural element of the social system comprising youth sports. With respect to the coach-parent dyad, a coachs role in relating to parents critically affects the consequences of participation for young athletes. The objective of this article is to assist coaches in working effectively with parents by fostering better understanding of i) the difference between youth and professional models of sport, ii) the goals of youth sports, iii) parental responsibilities and challenges, iv) how to achieve effective two-way communication with parents, and v) how to organize and conduct sport meetings with parents.

Behavioral assessment in youth sports: coaching behaviors and children's attitudes

To define the characteristics and dimensional patterning of coaching behaviors, 15,449 behaviors of 31 youth basketball coaches were coded in terms of a 10-category system. Post-season attitude and self-esteem data were obtained from players on 23 teams and were related to the behavioral measures. Compared with rates of reinforcement, encouragement, and technical instruction, punitive responses occurred relatively infrequently. Factor analysis of the coaching behaviors indicated that supportive and punitive behavioral dimensions were orthogonal or statistically independent of one another rather than opposite ends of the same dimension. Punitive and instructional categories were part of the same behavior cluster. The relationship between coaching behaviors and the various player attitudes were highly specific in nature. Coaching behaviors accounted for about half of the variance in post-season attitudes toward the coach and the sport, but for significantly less variance in measures of team solidarity and self-esteem. Surprisingly, the rate of positive reinforcement was unrelated to any of the attitudinal measures. Punishment was negatively related to liking for the coach. In general, technical instruction categories were the strongest predictors of basketball player attitudes.

Coach-mediated team building in youth sports

Abstract In youth sports, fostering the development of a positive and cohesive team climate is one objective of psychologically oriented training programs for coaches. This article reviews the theoretical and empirical bases for team building as developed within the field of industrial and organizational psychology, as well as attempts that have been made to evaluate the efficacy of team building in both organizational and physical activity contexts. Next, we describe maseaures that can be taken by youth coaches to create 8 positive and enjoyable team atmosphere, drawing upon the empirically derived guidelines found in Coach Effectiveness Training. Finally, we review experimental studies that demonstrate that coach mining can not only improve intrateam attraction, but can also have a variety of related positive outcomes for young athletes, including heightened self-esteem, reduced performance anxiety, and lowered dropout rates.