AI Insight
This study evaluated a 7-month coach education program called Empowering Coaching™ with 314 young Mexican athletes (ages 12-16) and 25 coaches in school-based sports. Athletes who completed the program showed significant improvements in their perceptions of an empowering motivational climate, autonomy and relatedness satisfaction, and social cohesion. The benefits appeared to work through an indirect pathway, where an empowering climate fostered autonomy satisfaction, which then enhanced social cohesion among team members.
Why it matters
The findings demonstrate that structured, extended coach training programs can meaningfully improve young athletes' psychological well-being and team dynamics in school sports settings. This approach offers a practical framework for educational institutions seeking to create more positive sport environments that support both individual development and group functioning.
Understand the Science
IntroductionThis study examined the longitudinal effects of a coach education program (based on Empowering Coaching™), implemented in a school-based setting across the sport season, on young athletes’ perceptions of the motivational climate, satisfaction of basic psychological needs, and team cohesion across a sport season.MethodsParticipants were 314 athletes from Mexico (12–16 years, M = 15.11, SD = 1.30) at baseline, of whom 143 completed post-intervention assessments (45.5% retention). Twenty-five coaches engaged in workshops and guided reflections over a 7-month period. Athletes completed questionnaires assessing the prevailing motivational climate, need satisfaction, and cohesion at the beginning and end of the season.ResultsPaired-sample analyses revealed significant small-to-moderate improvements in athletes’ perceptions of an empowering climate, autonomy and relatedness satisfaction, and social cohesion, whereas competence satisfaction and task cohesion showed no significant change. To further examine hypothesized mechanisms, structural equation modeling indicated that perceptions of an empowering climate directly predicted changes in task cohesion and indirectly predicted social cohesion through changes in autonomy satisfaction.DiscussionThe findings highlight the potential of an extended, collaborative and multi-activity delivery of Empowering Coaching™ training to promote young athletes’ feelings of autonomy and belonging as well as group functioning within competitive school sport.