Passion for coaching and the quality of the coach¬タモathlete relationship: The mediating role of coaching behaviors

Objectives: Using theDualisticModel of Passion [Vallerand et al. (2003). Les passions de l’âme: on obsessive and harmonious passion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 756e767], this studyexamined the role of coaches’ passion for coaching in athletes’ perceptions of the quality of the coacheathlete relationship. Moreover, we hypothesized that coaches’ harmonious and obsessive passion toward coaching should shape the manner they interact with their athletes that should, in turn, influence how athletes perceive relationship quality. Method: Participants were 103 coacheathlete dyads engaged in one of several sports (e.g., gymnastics, volleyball, soccer). They completed self-administered questionnaires independently. Results: Results from structural equation modeling revealed that harmonious passion for coaching positively predicted autonomy-supportive behaviors toward their athletes, while obsessive passion for coaching positively predicted controlling behaviors. Moreover, autonomy-supportive behaviors predicted high quality coacheathlete relationships as perceived by athletes that, in turn, positively predicted athletes’ general happiness. Conclusions: This study provides insights into the psychological factors that allow coaches to instigate high quality relationships with their athletes and the impact of the relationship on athletes’ general happiness. Future research directions are discussed in light of the Dualistic Model of Passion and the coacheathlete relationship. Crown Copyright 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Recently, the coacheathlete relationship has attracted growing attention from sport psychologists (Jowett & Cockerill, 2003; Jowett & Wylleman, 2006; Poczwardowski, Barott, & Henschen, 2003; Poczwardowski, Barott, & Jowett, 2006). This surge of research may be due to the recognition that the coacheathlete relationship is a crucial antecedent of athletes’ optimal functioning (Jowett, 2007; Jowett & Cockerill, 2003). It thus becomes important to identify the psychological factors that allow coaches to develop high quality relationships with their athletes. It is posited that passion represents such a psychological factor. Indeed, if coaches are passionate toward coaching, this could be contributing to high quality coacheathlete relationships given that they should be entirely devoted to their athletes. Thus, the aim of this paper was to investigate the role of coaches’ passion in the quality of the coacheathlete relationship and athletes’ well-being. The dualistic model of passion The concept of passion Vallerand and colleagues (Vallerand, 2008, 2010; Vallerand et al., 2003) have recently proposed a Dualistic Model of Passionwherein passion is defined as a strong inclination toward a self-defining activity that one loves, finds important, and invests a significant amount of time and energy. The Dualistic Model of Passion further proposed that there exist two distinct types of passion, harmonious and obsessive, which can be differentiated in terms of how the passionate activity has been internalized into one’s identity. Past research has shown that values and regulations concerning noninteresting activities can be internalized in either an autonomous or a controlled fashion (Deci, Eghrari, Patrick, & Leone,1994). Along the same vein, Vallerand et al. (2003) proposed that these two internalization processes could occur with interesting and loved * Corresponding author. Laboratoire de Recherche sur le Comportement Social, Département de Psychologie, Université du Québec à Montréal, Box 8888, Succursale Centre-Ville, Montréal (Québec), Canada H3C 3P8. Tel.: þ1 514 987 3000x4836; fax: þ1 514 987 7953. E-mail address: [email protected] (R.J. Vallerand).