Differences in Cohesion between High School and College Football Teams and Starters and Nonstarters

Abstract

The Group Environment Questionnaire was administered at the end of the season to 44 football players from a large high school, 25 players from a medium-sized high school, and 52 players from a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III university. It was hypothesized that starters would be more cohesive than nonstarters and that high school teams would be more cohesive than the university team. Scores from the four sub-scales were analyzed with two-way (High School/University X Starter/Nonstarter) analysis of variance. Main effects for Team and for Starter/Nonstarter were significant for the Individual Attraction to Group-Task and Group Integration-Task scales. Starters scored higher than nonstarters on both scales, and high school teams scored higher than the university team on both scales. Results support Widmeyer, Brawley, and Carron's 1985 model, which specifies that teams' characteristics and players' characteristics are antecedents of team cohesion.