Comparison of Relationships Among Team Cohesion Scores and Measures of Team Success in Male Varsity Basketball Teams

Abstract

This study explores several methodological areas that may account for in consistency in basketball study findings concerning the cohesion-performance relationship. An average team score for each item and factor appearing on a cohesion questionnaire was calculated for 18 youth teams (ages 10-16) and 17 teams composed of college men (ages 19—22). Both univariate and multivariate relationships between 2 measures of team success and team scores for cohesion items were identified and compared in each age level of competition. The study findings indicate (a) measures of team success, affiliation cohesion, and satisfac tion with team achievements are interrelated in both levels of competition; (b) the magnitude of relationships increased significantly in both the youth and mens teams when moving from simple to multiple correlational techniques; (c) the magnitude of multiple relationships did not differ among each measure of team succcess separately; (d) the magnitude of multiple correlations did not increase when computing canonical correlations in either level of competition; and (e) the magnitude of relationships were not a function of the number of teams in each level of competition.