Gender Differences in Preference and Perception of Coaching Behaviors

Purpose:

Sport leadership is considered as the behavioral process that can influence the performance and psychological well-being of athletes (Barrow, 1977; Horn, 1992). For this reason, coaching leadership behaviors has been the major theme for coach-athlete relationship studies. Most studies on gender issues have concentrated on comparing the gender of coaches (e.g., Frankl & Babbitt, 1998; Simmons, 1997), whereas few studies have focused on comparing male and female athletes. The purpose of this study was to examine the preferred and perceived coaching behaviors between male and female athletes.

Methods:

The 60-item Revised Leadership Scale for Sports (RLSS; Zhang, Jenson, & Mann, 1997) was used for this study. The RLSS had two versions: Athlete's Preference of Coaching Behavior and Athlete's Perception of Coaching Behavior. Each version included six dimensions: Autocratic Behavior, Positive Feedback, Training and Instruction, Situational Consideration, Social Support, and Autocratic Behavior. Participants of this study were male athletes (N = 585) from the following sports: baseball, basketball, soccer, tennis, and track and field; and female athletes (N = 472) from softball, basketball, soccer, tennis, and track and field.

Analysis/Results:

One-way MANOVA was used to examine the differences in the perception and preference mean vector scores between male and female athletes. Results of the one-way MANOVA indicated that there were significant (p < .001) differences in both the preference (Wilk's Lambda = 13.675, p < .001) and perception (Wilk's Lambda = 16.348, p < .001) mean vector scores between male and female athletes. For the Preference Version, univariate analyses indicated female athletes had significantly (p < .05) higher preference scores in Situational Consideration but lower scores in Autocratic Behavior than male athletes. For the Perception Version, female athletes had significantly (p < .05) lower scores in both Democratic and Autocratic Behaviors dimensions than their male counterparts.

Conclusions:

In summary, female athletes preferred a higher degree of Situation Consideration but a lower degree of Autocratic Behaviors than male athletes. It is suggested that when dealing with female athletes, coaches should consider factors such as time, environment, skill level, and physical condition of the athletes before selecting them for the appropriate game position. Coaches should also avoid autocratic behaviors such as overemphasis on his/her power or authority which can be counter productive when dealing with female athletes (Sherman & Fuller, 2001). In addition, autocratic leadership behavior would not facilitate effective communication, which was reported as extremely valuable by female athletes (Fasting & Pfister, 2000).