How youth athletes satisfy their team? Identifying significant predictors of perceived coach leadership and team cohesion, team commitment: A hierarchical regression analysis

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify how youth athletes’ perceptions of coach leadership behavior, team cohesion, and team commitment influenced team satisfaction. Purposive sampling was used to select athletes from 77 athletic teams at 27 middle schools in Hualien County, Taiwan. Five-hundred questionnaires were distributed to students and 403 questionnaires were collected, representing an effective response rate of 80.6%. Descriptive analysis and hierarchical regression analysis were utilized to analyze the data. Results indicated that emotional commitment, coach training, and instructional behavior increased the team satisfaction for both elite and non-elite youth athletes. Moreover, the team satisfaction of elite youth athletes increased with camaraderie whereas that of non-elite youth athletes increased with positive feedback from coaches. We recommend that governments and school administrators conduct coaching workshops to improve instructional behavior.