The relationship between coaches leadership behaviour and training attitudes of college high-level athletes: the role of self-management and sport self-efficacy.

objectiveHigh-level college athletes represent an essential part of the talent pool for competitive sports, and training attitude is a key indicator associated with athletes’ training quality and effectiveness. Coaches, as both designers and implementers of training plans, as well as educators and mentors, maintain a close and intrinsic relationship with athletes. Therefore, this study aims to examine the associations among coaches’ leadership behaviors, college high-level athletes’ training attitudes, and the potential mediating roles of self-management and sport self-efficacy.

methodsThis study conducted a survey among high-level college athletes using the Coaches’ Leadership Behaviour Scale, the Survey Questionnaire on Self-Management Ability of High-Level Athletes in China’s Colleges and Universities, the Sports Self-Efficacy Scale, and the Athletes’ Training Attitude Scale. All scales demonstrated good internal consistency, with Cronbach’s α coefficients exceeding 0.80. The fit indices from confirmatory factor analysis also met acceptable standards. A total of 886 questionnaires were distributed. After excluding 73 invalid responses due to consistency in answers, patterned responses, and missing data, 813 valid questionnaires were collected, yielding an effective response rate of 91.76%. Structural equation modeling and the bootstrap method were used to explore the relationships between the variables and the mediating effects of self-management and sport self-efficacy.

resultsThe results indicated that different types of coach leadership behaviour were significantly and positively associated with athletes’ training attitudes. Furthermore, self-management and sport self-efficacy demonstrated significant independent and sequential mediating associations in the relationships between coaches’ training and instruction behaviour, democratic behaviour, social support behaviour, positive feedback behaviour, and athletes’ training attitudes. In contrast, no statistically significant mediating association of self-management and sport self-efficacy was observed between autocratic behaviour and athletes’ training attitudes.

conclusionThe findings confirm a close association between coaches’ leadership behaviour and athletes’ training attitudes, and highlight the mediating roles of self-management and sport self-efficacy. These results provide insights into the underlying psychological mechanisms linking coaching behaviour and training attitudes.