Coaching Behaviors Associated With Changes in Fear of Failure: Changes in Self‐Talk and Need Satisfaction as Potential Mechanisms

Abstract

Cognitive-interpersonal and motivational mechanisms may regulate relations between youth perceptions of interpersonal aspects of the social ecology and their fear-of-failure (FF) levels. Youth (N=165) registered for a summer swim league rated their fear of failure at the beginning, middle, and end of the season. Extensive model comparisons indicated that youths' end-of-season ratings of coach behaviors could be reduced to three factors (affiliation, control, blame). Perceived control and blame from coaches predicted residualized change in corresponding aspects of youths' self-talk, but only changes in self-blame positively predicted changes in FF levels during the season. Perceived affiliation from coaches predicted autonomy need satisfaction which, in turn, negatively predicted the rate of change in FF levels during the season. These findings indicate that (a) youth perceptions of coaches were directly and indirectly related to acute socialization of FF and (b) both cognitive-interpersonal and motivational mechanisms contributed to this socialization process. Further research is needed to test for developmental differences in these mechanisms to determine whether findings generalize to more heterogeneous and at-risk populations and to investigate other potential social-ecological influences on socialization.

Self-talk: Review and sport-specific model

“…that coach esteem, support, and behaviors are related to athletes' use of self-talk such that supportive coaching behaviors are associated with more positive and less negative self-talk in athletes and negative coaching behaviors such as high levels of perceived control and blame are related to athlete use of negative self-talk (Conroy & Coatsworth, 2007;Conroy & Pincus, 2006: Theodorakis et al, 2012Zourbanos et al, 2011). Much of the research that has been conducted in sport contexts is correlational.…”

“…For example, little attention has been paid to self-compassionate (e.g., "All humans fail sometimes") self-talk (Mosewich, Crocker, Kowalski, & DeLongis, 2013), calming (e.g., "Be cool and keep playing") self-talk (Schüler & Langens, 2007), self-protective (e.g., "I coach myself in a friendly way) selftalk (Conroy & Coatsworth, 2007), task-irrelevant (e.g., "I want a strawberry milkshake!") selftalk (Berk, 1986), humorous self-talk, self-talk related to enjoyment/appreciation of the moment (e.g., "it is exciting to be in the championship match"), and self-talk related to others, such as "this referee is terrible," "my teammates are playing well," and "my coach will be angry if this continues."…”

A qualitative synthesis of research into social motivational influences across the athletic career span

“…Coaches and parents appeared to dominate the authority climate, but the influence of parents reduces significantly between the specialisation and investment-mastery stages (e.g. Reeve et al 2002, Vazou et al 2005, Conroy and Coatsworth 2007a, 2007b, Garcia Bengoechea and Strean 2007, Gould et al 2008, Holt et al 2008, Fraser-Thomas and Côté 2009, Keegan et al 2009, 2010b, in press, Gearity and Murray 2011.…”

“…It was broadly broken down into positive reactions (e.g. Conroy and Coatsworth 2007b), tolerant reactions and negative reactions (e.g. Vazou et al 2005, Keegan 2010b, with athletes also referring to 'emotional intensity' of the protagonist, as well as the 'emotional range' of the coach -reflecting the ability to be calm, passionate, or measured in relation to the moment and situational demands (Keegan et al in press).…”

Health Psychological Constructs as Predictors of Doping Susceptibility in Adolescent Athletes

“…In regard to our sample, this discrepancy might be explained by the fact that females also showed lower values in self-esteem which is negatively associated with fear of failure (30) and considered to be the most frequently aversive consequence (31). Additionally, Conroy and Coatsworth (32) found that self-blame predicted the extent of fear of failure in adolescent athletes. Another explanation could be found in the different sources from which males and females derive their self-esteem.…”