Exploring relationships between the coach-initiated motivational climate and psychological coping skills over the high school American football season

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between the perceived coach-initiated motivational climate and psychological coping skills over a competitive high school football season as well as changes in perceptions of the climate over the season. Near the beginning (Time 1) and end of the season (Time 2), 101 players from five competitive high school American football programs completed the Perceived Motivational Climate in Sport Questionnaire-2 and the Athletic Coping Skill Inventory-28. A hierarchical linear regression revealed that Time 2 task-involving climate predicted Time 2 psychological coping skills when controlling for Time 1 psychological coping skills. Repeated measure multivariate analysis of variance results demonstrated that players perceived a decrease in the task-involving climate and an increase in the ego-involving climate over the course of the competitive season. These results add to the research on the positive role of a task-involving climate in the sport domain. Additionally, this research provides insight into how perceptions of the coach-initiated motivational climate can shift over the course of the competitive season.