The mediating role of self-efficacy in the relationship between perceptions of coaching effectiveness and performance anxiety

Stress and anxiety in sporting environments are increasingly important concerns for psychologists. Managers and coaches strive to extract maximum performance from athletes, and so athletes’ perceptions of coaches’ leadership qualities may play a role in the level of anxiety athletes experience. How much performance anxiety athletes experience, and whether they interpret this as facilitative or debilitative may depend also on athletes’ sense of self-efficacy. This thesis investigates whether football players’ self-efficacy fully or partially mediates the relation between their performance anxiety and their perceptions of coaches’ effectiveness. Samples of professional and semi-professional players rated their cognitive and somatic performance anxiety and their facilitative/debilitative interpretation of these, as well as their own sense of self-efficacy and their perceptions of coaches’ effectiveness. Higher level of competition related to greater self-efficacy, greater perceived coaching effectiveness, lower somatic anxiety, and a more facilitative interpretation of anxiety. Depending on the sample, self-efficacy partially or fully mediated the relation between players’ perceptions of coaches and their cognitive and somatic anxiety and facilitative/debilitative interpretation. Players’ perceptions of coaches were positively related to self-efficacy, and negatively related to somatic anxiety. Cognitive anxiety tended to be higher among high self-efficacy individuals in less competitive settings. Athletes in defensive roles registered higher levels of anxiety. Only weak links between perceptions of coaches and self-efficacy were found in a less competitive university football environment. This suggests that the relationship between perceptions of coaches, self-efficacy and anxiety only develops through significant sporting involvement and experience. Overall, these results suggest that, in professional and semi-professional players, a high sense of self-efficacy is a strong indicator of lower anxiety and a more positive evaluation of coaches. As self-efficacy is not just self-confidence but involves awareness of the state of development of specific sporting skills, focusing coaching efforts on developing players’ self-efficacy can simultaneously benefit their psychological as well as sporting capabilities. It is suggested that reflective practice is used systematically to develop awareness of players’ skills as well as psychological coping awareness. Such methodology should be part of the curriculum for training coaches