THE ROLE OF COACH-ATHLETE RELATIONSHIPS ON MENTAL HEALTH, COPING AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SKILLS OF ADOLESCENT ATHLETES

The role of coach-athlete relationships on youth athlete performance and development outcomes has generated significant research interest seeking to understand the dynamics that underlie the nature and development of these relationships. Earlier investigations focused on understanding coaching styles and coaching leadership behaviors which made coaches effective and successful. However, there has been a shift in focus to how coach behaviors and leadership styles affect relationships with athletes and their performance outcomes. More recently, researchers have developed interest in the role of these relationships on athletes’ psychological states and wellbeing. This shift has been necessitated in part by growing evidence of coaches’ abuse of power, emotional and sexual abuse, and maltreatment of athletes. The recent rise to prominence of mental health states of elite athletes has also led to new ways of looking at coach-athlete relationships. Of recent interest is how these relationships could tilt in a direction that either positively or negatively affect athletes’ mental health. Consequently, there is an emerging body of literature devoted to understanding how the quality and type of coach-athlete relationships relate to mental health and wellbeing of athletes.The goal of this two-study dissertation was to investigate how coach-athlete relationships relate to mental health states of young adult and adolescent athletes in the US and Botswana. Study 1 involved descriptive analyses of the relationships between coach-athlete relationships, mental health, coping functions, and psychological skills of young adult athletes aged 18-24 years. This study involved a sample of 62 young adult athletes in the Greater Lansing area in the state of Michigan who agreed to complete in an online survey. Independent samples t-tests showed that female young athletes reported quality coach-athlete relationships, coping and psychological skills but scored poorly on mental health than their male counterparts. Complementarity, a dimension of the coach-athlete relationship, had significant positive correlations with motivation and mental preparation which are both dimensions of psychological skills. Regression analyses showed that coach-athlete relationships did not predict mental health. The data did not support the hypothesized mediational role of psychological skills. These results could have largely been influenced by a small sample size and a substantial amount of missing data which could have been due to zoom fatigue in the COVID era. Despite the small sample size and other limitations, the findings show that, overall female athletes have better coach-athlete relationships and resorted more to emotion-focused coping than their male peers. A larger sample size was needed to fully examine the mediational relationship. Study 2 was an extension of Study 1 with a large sample of adolescent athletes from Botswana. A sample of 255 adolescent senior secondary school student-athletes from Botswana completed pencil and paper questionnaires. The main aim of study 2 was to test the mediational role of psychological skills and coping function in the relationship between coach-athlete relationships and mental health. Regression analyses showed that coach-athlete relationships predicted both mental health and coping functions, and that coping functions in turn predicted mental health. In the mediation model, psychological skills and coping function mediated the effect of complementarity on social dysfunction and dysphoria (mental health). However, psychological skills alone did not mediate the effect of coach-athlete relationships on mental health. Overall, the two studies emphasize the importance of positive coach-athlete relationships as they are facilitative of athletes’ good mental health, coping abilities, and wellbeing of adolescent and young adult athletes. In turn good mental health, adaptive coping function and wellbeing positively impact sports climate and athletes’ experiences.