Team cohesion, effort, and objective individual performance of high school basketball players. The Sport Psychologist

Previous research has demonstrated the relationship between high cohesion and optimal team performance. This study investigated the cohesion-individual performance relationship and examined expended effort as a mediator of that relationship. At the middle and end of the regular season, 41 male and 49 female varsity high school basketball players representing eight teams com-pleted measures of group cohesion and perceived expended effort. At the same time intervals, the players ' game statistics were gathered, and coaches com-pleted the expended effort questions regarding their players. Results partially supported the predictive ability of cohesion on objective individual perfor-mance and expended effort was a mediator of the cohesion-individual perfor-mance relationship at the end of the season. Results are discussed regarding theoretical and measurement issues. Practical implications for coaches and consultants are also provided. For years, coaches have intuitively recognized that team unity is important in ensuring team success. The concept of team unity has been operationalized in the sport psychology literature as cohesion, described by Carron, Brawley, and Widmeyer (1998) as "a dynamic process that is reflected in the tendency for a group to stick together and remain united in the pursuit of its instrumental objec-tives andlor for the satisfaction of member affective needs " (p. 213). The definition This study was a master's thesis conducted by the first author under the direction o