| Description |
The overall purpose of this research was to investigate the interpersonal sources of relation-inferred self-efficacy (RISE) and the processes involved in self-efficacy development for male high school student-athletes. The first study qualitatively investigated adolescent athletes' perceived sources of RISE by identifying specific coaching behaviors. Forty-three high school male student-athletes were interviewed about their high school sport experiences. Analysis revealed seven major themes: general encouragement, efficacy-building statements, instruction, task-oriented statements, challenging opportunities, focused interpersonal attention, and expressiveness. In addition to the comparable results of a similar study in youth sport, distinct subthemes emerged related to coaches caring about academic performance, taking athlete input, and providing opportunities to be a starter or leader on the team. When compared to youth sport, evidence suggested that relationships are built on a deeper level than just what happens at a game or practice, and coaches should communicate individually and establish personal relationships with their athletes while focusing on whole person development. The second study utilized a multiphase approach. Phase 1 consisted of generating a pool of 31 domain-specific coaching behaviors and having those items undergo an expert review to enhance content validity. Based on reviewer feedback a final pool of 29 items was retained. Phase 2 examined the 29 coaching behaviors from Phase 1 and a 13- iv item coaching behavior inventory from a youth sport study. The two scales both measured perceptions of RISE-relevant coaching behaviors and were analyzed to determine the underlying factor structure. Principal axis analysis results from 319 high school male student-athletes revealed seven items representing nonverbal behaviors from the inventory developed in Phase 1 and five verbal coaching behaviors from the youth sport study, to create a final 12-item scale. Phase 3 examined the structural properties for a two-factor model in which verbal and nonverbal coaching behaviors were the latent variables. Results revealed all path coefficients to be statistically significant and the overall model was considered marginally adequate. Study 3 used the knowledge gained from the second study and examined the associations between frequency of experiencing these RISE-relevant coaching behaviors, RISE, and self-efficacy. Three hundred and fifty-six student-athletes participated, and results supported past research in finding the variables (i.e., frequency of experiencing RISE-relevant coaching behaviors, RISE perceptions, and self-efficacy) to all be positively correlated. Data also indicated that RISE mediated the relationship between the frequency of experiencing RISE-relevant coaching behaviors and self-efficacy, supporting the notion that there may be a complementary pathway in forming self-efficacy beliefs. |
