Multidimensional self-concepts,masculinity, and femininity as a function of women's involvement in athletics

Measures of multidimensional self-concepts, masculinity (M), and femininity (F) were completed by high-school women athletes and nonathletes, and by young-adult women athletes and nonathletes. Women athletes in both age groups had substantially higher scores in M and in self-concept of physical ability, but did not differ substantially from nonathletes in F and in other areas of self-concept. Women athletes in both groups also judged their self-concept of physical ability to be more important to them than did nonathletes, but the two groups did not differ in the perceived importance of other areas of self-concept. These findings support the androgyny contention that MF should not be considered a bipolar construct and suggest that women can be more M without being less F. The specificity of the relation between athletic involvement and the multiple dimensions of self-concept also provide further support for the construct validity of the self-concept dimensions.The authors would like to acknowledge Lindsay McCaughan for his assistance in the design of the study, the staff and students at Pymble Ladies College, and the group of female powerlifters.     

Gender Role Orientation of Athletes and Nonathletes in a Patriarchal Society: A Study in Turkey

The purpose of this study was to compare the gender role orientation and gender role classification of female and male athletes to those of their nonathlete counterparts. A total of 463 athletes and 378 nonathletes completed the Bem Sex Role Inventory. The findings indicated that athletes score higher on the masculinity and femininity subscales than do nonathletes. Men had higher scores on masculinity than did women, whereas women had higher scores on femininity than did men. In addition, both men and women athletes were mostly classified in the androgynous category. These findings are discussed in relation to the competitive sport environment and Turkish society.     

Confidence and aspirations: Self-esteem and self-concepts as predictors of students' life goals

Research was conducted to assess sex differences in college students' self-esteem and self-concepts, and the extent to which students' self-perceptions predict their life goals Questionnaires that included the Rosenberg Scale, Texas Social Behavior Inventory, self-concepts, life goals, and demographic and family backgrounds were completed by 804 women from seven colleges and 127 men from two colleges Men and women did not differ significantly in their self-esteem and interpersonal self-confidence, but the men rated themselves higher on math/science ability, leadership/public speaking ability, and coping/self-sufficiency Women's global self-esteem scores and interpersonal self-confidence did not predict their life goals, but women's greater self-confidence in masculine spheres predicted higher educational goals and their ranking of future careers as a more important priority in their lives Men's interpersonal self-confidence predicted their ranking time for future spouses as a high priority and time for themselves as a lower priority Men's global self-esteem and leadership/public speaking ability self-concept predicted preferences for full-time career involvement when their future children are very young Different demographic variables also predicted men's and women's goals Implications of these sex differences and predictive relationships are discussed     

A dynamic view of coach transformational leadership: How leadership perceptions relate to task cohesion and team potency

We examined whether athletes’ perceptions of coach transformational leadership across time related to task cohesion and team potency beliefs. Across multiple time points, we collected 384 observations (M = 5.41 observations per athlete) from competitive youth athletes via a mobile application designed to examine team dynamics. Multilevel structural equation modelling revealed intraindividual variation in athletes’ evaluations of coach transformational leadership across time. Further, we observed robust support for a positive relation between perceptions of coach transformational leadership and task cohesion over time at both the between- and within-person levels. The relation between coach transformational leadership and team potency was significant at the between-person level, however, we did not find support for this relation at the within-person level. These results provide insight into how the ebb and flow of coach transformational leadership over time connects to team cohesion, highlighting the need for more intensive longitudinal designs that capture the dynamic nature of leadership.     

Coach identity leadership behaviours are positively associated with athlete resource appraisals: The mediating roles of relational and group identification

BackgroundThere is growing evidence identifying the positive effects of sport and exercise leaders engaging in identity leadership. Yet we have limited knowledge of how identity leadership is associated with athletes’ resource appraisals (e.g., self-efficacy) and performance, the underpinning mechanisms that explain such relationships, and changes in relationships across a sporting season.MethodsIn Study 1, 412 amateur and professional athletes completed seven questionnaires directly prior to athletic competition in a cross-sectional design. In Study 2, 136 athletes completed seven questionnaires directly before competition, and one questionnaire directly after competition both at the start and the end of the athletic season.ResultsIn Study 1, relational identification and group identification mediated the positive relationship between identity leadership and self-efficacy, control, approach goals and social support. In Study 2, identity leadership at the start of the season predicted self-efficacy at the end of the season through relational identification. Group identification did not significantly mediate the identity leadership-resource appraisal relationship. Perceived social support at the start of the season predicted greater performance satisfaction at the end of the competitive season.ConclusionsFindings provide evidence that sport coaches’ engagement in identity leadership is key to forming a shared social identity, which in turn, is broadly adaptive for stress appraisals and performance satisfaction both cross sectionally and longitudinally.     

Transformational Leadership and Sports Performance: The Mediating Role of Intrinsic Motivation1

We developed and tested a model in which transformational leadership affects sports performance indirectly, through the mediating effects of intrinsic motivation. During the season, 168 university athletes provided data on their perceptions of their coach's transformational leadership and their own intrinsic motivation. At the end of the season, their coaches assessed the performance of the athletes. Using LISREL VIII, three models were estimated following the sequence of mediator tests outlined by Kelloway (1996, 1998). The proposed model received considerable support. The results isolate intrinsic motivation as a mediator of the relationship between transformational leadership and sports performance, suggesting that transformational leadership may enhance intrinsic interest in the task.     

Transformational Leadership and Well-Being in Sports: The Mediating Role of Need Satisfaction

The present study examined the direct and indirect effect of coaches’ transformational leadership on athlete well-being. Participants were 184 floorball players who completed questionnaires about perceived transformational leadership from their coach, need satisfaction, and sport-related well-being. The analyses revealed positive relationships between perceived transformational leadership, need satisfaction, and well-being. The results also demonstrated that the positive effect of transformational leadership on athletes’ well-being was mediated by athletes’ need satisfaction. Furthermore, the results from this study add the previously unexplored outcome athlete well-being to the positive effects of transformational leadership in sports, thereby extending our knowledge of the transformational leadership process.     

Gender Differences in Leadership Aspirations and Job and Life Attribute Preferences among U.S. Undergraduate Students

The purpose of the present study was to examine gender differences in constructs associated with leadership aspirations in a sample of 467 undergraduate students because these might contribute to the gender gap in leadership attainment. The results demonstrated that female participants perceived themselves as having less leadership ability than male participants, and viewed their attainment of leadership roles as less likely than male participants did, which could reflect anticipated discrimination. Female participants reported less interest than male participants in elite leadership positions (e.g., CEO, senator), and associated positive characteristics with such roles less than male participants. They were also less likely than male participants to indicate a willingness to accept a promotion that would require them to sacrifice enjoyable work. Male and female participants ranked the importance of a variety of job and life attribute preferences similarly, though female participants emphasized the importance of life attribute preferences (e.g., family, good health), whereas male participants emphasized the importance of job attribute preferences (e.g., high salary). Finally, male participants were more likely than female participants to expect and prefer that they would out-earn their future spouses. These results highlight the need for greater consideration of how young women’s and men’s leadership aspirations and job/life preferences contribute to the gender gap in leadership attainment.     

Exploring competitive orientation in a group of athletes participating in the 1996 paralympic trials

The purposes of this study were to test (1) whether athletes with congenital disabilities exhibited different competitive orientations than athletes with disabilities acquired during their lifespans and (2) whether male athletes with disabilities exhibited different competitive orientations than their female peers. 54 paraplegic, quadriplegic and amputee athletes competing in the 1996 Paralympic Track and Field Trials completed the Sport Orientation Questionnaire. No mean differences were found between men and women, athletes with different onsets of their disabilities across the lifespan, between adolescents and adults, and between athletes with different severity classifications on the Goal orientation, Competitiveness, and Desire to win scales. Larger studies are encouraged to examine competitive orientation, as well as scores on tests specifically constructed to be administered to athletes with disabilities.     

The impact of identity leadership on team functioning and well-being in team sport: Is psychological safety the missing link?

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of psychological safety in explaining the impact of identity leadership on team performance and athlete well-being. Adopting a cross-sectional survey design, 289 handball players rated the identity leadership skills of their coach, their captain, and the informal leaders in the team, as well as various performance- and well-being-related measures. Structural equation modelling (controlling for the nested structure of our data) revealed that by demonstrating identity leadership, coaches, captains, and in particular informal athlete leaders, all had a unique contribution in strengthening their team members’ identification with their team. By this shared sense of ‘us’, athletes felt psychologically safe in their team to speak up, provide input, and take risks. In line with our hypotheses, this sense of psychological safety acted as a mediator between identity leadership and two subsequent pathways: (1) a team-oriented pathway in which psychological safety inspired good teamwork, which fostered team resilience and, in turn, enhanced athletes’ satisfaction with their team’s performance; and (2) an individual-oriented pathway wherein psychological safety buffered against athletes’ burnout, thereby enhancing their health. In addition to these pathways mediated by psychological safety, the informal leaders directly influenced the performance pathway (with total effect sizes being 10 times larger than those of coaches and team captains), whereas coaches had a direct influence on the health pathway (with total effect sizes being three times larger than those of informal leaders and captains). Given the often-underestimated importance of the informal leaders, sport teams can be recommended to adopt a structure of shared leadership in which team members are encouraged to engage in identity leadership. In conclusion, we found that by nurturing a shared sense of ‘we’ and ‘us’ within the team, leaders are able to foster a psychologically safe environment, which in turn paves the way for an optimal team functioning and a healthier team.     

Differences in Imagery Content and Imagery Ability Between High and Low Confident Track and Field Athletes

The purpose of this research was to examine how high and low trait sport confident track and field athletes differed in their imagery content and imagery ability. NCAA Division I track and field athletes ( M age = 20.5 +/- 1.61 years; M = 7.15 +/- 3.3 years experience; N = 111, 44 males and 67 females) completed the following measures: Trait Sport Confidence Inventory (TSCI), Sport Imagery Questionnaire (SIQ), and Movement Imagery Questionnaire - Revised (MIQ-R). Profile analyses revealed that high trait sport confident athletes utilized each category of imagery (Motivational General - Mastery, Motivational General - Arousal, Motivational Specific, Cognitive General, and Cognitive Specific) significantly more than low trait sport confident athletes. No significant differences emerged between the groups on the two imagery ability scales. The results suggest that the high confident athletes used more imagery, but they did not have higher imagery skills than low confident athletes.     

Body-esteem, body mass index, and risk for disordered eating among adolescents in synchronized swimming

The aim of this study was to examine dimensions of body-esteem, Body Mass Index, and their relations with eating disorder symptoms among 42 elite adolescent athletes engaged in competitive synchronized swimming (M = 15.4 yr., SD = 1.2) and to compare them with 40 athletes in sports with no emphasis on leanness (M = 16.5 yr., SD = .93), and 50 nonathlete college female students (M = 16.3 yr., SD = 1.1). They completed the Body-esteem Scale and the Eating Attitudes Test, and the Body Mass Index was computed. Analysis showed synchronized swimmers reported greater negative feelings about their appearance than the two other groups and low perceptions of how others evaluate their physical appearance. Participants did not differ on the EAT-26. Regression analyses showed that Body Mass Index and Body-esteem Appearance accounted for 38% of the variance in log-transformed Dieting scores of synchronized swimmers. Results are discussed in relation to the literature.     

Motivation in sport: an achievement goal perspective in young Spanish recreational athletes

This study examined the relationship between goal orientations, perceived motivational climate, enjoyment, satisfaction, perception of ability, and preference for tasks with different levels of difficulty in Spanish athletes. To measure these variables 323 recreational athletes completed the Spanish versions of the Perception of Success Questionnaire, Perception of Significant Others' Sport Success Criteria Questionnaire, Enjoyment/Boredom scale, and Satisfaction in Sport Questionnaire. To measure perception of ability, athletes responded to two items reflecting a general perception and a comparative perception of their ability. Finally, preference for a task of different difficulty was measured by two items reflecting preference for easy and for challenging tasks. Analysis showed that scores on a positive ego orientation and negative task orientation were associated with maladaptive motivational patterns in sport. Such patterns involve lower perceptual ability, preference for easy tasks, and less enjoyment and satisfaction in sport activities.     

不同运动经历人群的内隐序列学习能力

考察不同运动经历人群的内隐序列学习能力。被试为上海体育学院小球运动员和非运动员;实验结合PDP,采用序列学习任务,并测试操作智商与记忆广度。结果发现,运动员在15个组段上的平均反应时、内隐学习量、自动提取贡献率上显著大于非运动员;不同水平运动员在内隐学习量上差异显著。研究结论:运动员的内隐序列学习能力显著好于非运动员,与运动水平有关,与智商无显著相关;这种内隐序列学习能力可能是某种运动能力的表现形式。     

Higher mind-brain development in successful leaders: testing a unified theory of performance

This study explored mind-brain characteristics of successful leaders as reflected in scores on the Brain Integration Scale, Gibbs’s Socio-moral Reasoning questionnaire, and an inventory of peak experiences. These variables, which in previous studies distinguished world-class athletes and professional classical musicians from average-performing controls, were recorded in 20 Norwegian top-level managers and in 20 low-level managers—matched for age, gender, education, and type of organization (private or public). Top-level managers were characterized by higher Brain Integration Scale scores, higher levels of moral reasoning, and more frequent peak experiences. These multilevel measures could be useful tools in selection and recruiting of potential managers and in assessing leadership education and development programs. Future longitudinal research could further investigate the relationship between leadership success and these and other multilevel variables.     

Junior High School Athletes Excel in Scholarship

Ninth grade boys from a California junior high school who were participants in interscholastic athletics were compared with non-participants with respect to academic achievement. The athletic group tested higher on academic ability on the School and College Ability Test and earned a higher academic grade-point average. When athletes and non-athletes were matched on SCAT test scores, the athletic group showed higher academic achievement. The majority of boys who participated in sports for only one semester did as well as or better academically during their semester of participation than they did the other ninth grade semester. An incidental finding of the study showed that boys in general showed improved grade-point averages in the ninth grade when compared with their eighth grade records.     

How Do Athletic Status and Disability Status Affect the Five-Factor Model of Personality?

This article addresses the issue of whether athletic status and disability status affect the Big Five personality dimensions (Surgency, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Intellect/Openness to Experience). Scores were compared between groups of athletes and nonathletes who either did or did not have disabilities. Individuals with disabilities had higher scores for Emotional Stability and Conscien- tiousness and lower scores for Extraversion than did fully able respondents. Athletic status did not affect scores, although the time of onset of impairment had significant effects on scale scores. The personality model's internal psychometric properties (reliabilities, means, variances, correlational structure) among people with disabilities did not differ appreciably from fully able respondents. Implications are discussed.     

Perceived verbal aggressiveness of coaches in volleyball and basketball: a preliminary study

This study examined verbal aggressiveness of coaches as perceived by their athletes, 108 senior athletes (57 boys and 51 girls) ages 15-19 years. Participants were basketball players (56 athletes) and volleyball players (52 athletes) who completed questionnaires. The scale of verbal aggressiveness showed high internal consistency. A two-way analysis of variance, conducted using sex and sport as independent variables to examine interactions, yielded significant differences between adolescent volleyball and basketball athletes. Volleyball athletes had lower scores on the Verbal Aggressiveness Scale than basketball players. Research with larger samples and other sports is recommended.     

Transformational Leadership and Athlete Satisfaction: The Mediating Role of Coaching Competency

Drawing on social cognitive theory, we examine the relationship between coaches’ transformational leadership and athletes’ evaluations of coaches’ coaching competency. We also investigate how coaching competency can mediate the positive effect of coaches’ transformational leadership on athletes’ satisfaction. Using path analysis with bootstrapping techniques, we analyzed 397 competitive volleyball players to test our research model. Our results revealed that (a) coaches’ transformational leadership has a positive effect on coaching competency, and (b) coaching competency mediates the positive effect of coaches’ transformational leadership on athletes’ satisfaction. Implications for coach education and sport psychology in terms of theory and research are discussed.     

Student athletes' perceptions of self

Several factors have been found to contribute to the development of the self in adolescents, including religion, race, competence, leadership, physical appearance, and gender. The purpose of this study was to describe the development of self-perception in adolescent athletes and make comparisons with respect to gender and class level. One hundred seventy-five high school athletes were administered Harter's (1988) Self-Perception Profile for Adolescents. The data were analyzed for both the overall sample and demographic subgroups. Males had a significantly higher mean score on athletic competence than did females. Males also viewed both athletic competence and social acceptance as significantly more important than did females. These findings are discussed in the context of relevant literature on adolescents' perceptions of self.