Development and initial validation of an instrument to assess stressors among South African sports coaches

Abstract

The aim of this series of studies was to develop and initially validate an instrument to assess stressors among South African sports coaches. In study one, a preliminary pool of 45 items was developed based on existing literature and an expert panel was employed to assess the content validity and applicability of these items. In study two, the 32 items that were retained after study one were analysed using principal component analysis (PCA). The resultant factorial structure comprised four components: environmental stressors, performance stressors, task-related stressors, and athlete stressors. These four components were made up of 26 items and, together, the components and items comprised the provisional Stressors in Sports Coaching Questionnaire (SSCQ). The results show that the SSCQ demonstrates acceptable internal consistency (.73-.89). The findings provide preliminary evidence that SSCQ is a valid tool to assess stressors among South African sports coaches.

Assessing the prevalence, sources and selective antecedents of organizational stressors among elite football players and coaches in the Ghana premier league: Empirical evidence for applied practice

“…Stressors regarding logistics and operations, and coaching were the least experienced by both players and coaches in the Ghana premier league. The current findings on the prevalence of The finding that the Ghana premier league players and coaches experienced stressors in their work is similar to the findings of other studies conducted in the United States of America (USA), United Kingdom (UK), Australia and Europe (Hanton et al, 2005;Thelwell et al, 2008Thelwell et al, , 2016aMellalieu et al, 2009;Fletcher and Scott, 2010;Kristiansen et al, 2012;Thelwell, 2012;Didymus, 2017), and South Africa (Kubayi et al, 2018). For example, Didymus (2017) found that coaches experienced many stressors in relation to selection, athlete concerns, coaching responsibilities, expectations, interference, preparation, organizational management, and performance among others.…”

“…The authors indicated that football coaches are the ones who usually set standards and control all activities in the team. Additionally, Fletcher and Scott ( 2010 ) and Kubayi et al ( 2018 ) suggested that there is a high demand on coaches concerning what they do on key matters such as squad and team selection, athletes' wellbeing and performance, organization and administrative tasks while they try to improve their own performances (Gould et al, 2002 ). Similar evidence was revealed in Thelwell et al's ( 2016a ) study on the perceptions of athletes on stress experienced by their coaches in elite sports environments.…”

“…Similarly, Mellalieu et al ( 2009 ) identified performance-related stressors among elite athletes to be preparation, injury, expectations, opponents, coach issues, and self-presentation while organizational stressors included facilities, spectators, officials, format of competition, roles and other athletes. Within the context of Africa, Kubayi et al ( 2018 ) in their validation of an instrument to examine stressors among South African coaches, identified four components of stressors experienced by these coaches as environmental stressors (e.g., poorly planned travel arrangements, long working hours, poor hygiene conditions, unsafe competition arena), performance stressors (e.g., being blamed for poor results, financial incentives dependent on results, high expectation to win), task-related stressors (e.g., performing multiple roles like selection and scouting, managing too many squads, managing other coaches in the program, lack of recognition for good coaching), and athlete stressors (e.g., conflict between me and my athletes, athletes under-performing in training, conflict between athletes, injury to one of my athletes). Again, Surujlan and Nguyen ( 2009 ) identified sources of stress among South African coaches to be lack of resources, external pressure and internal capacity as multiple pressures experienced by African coaches.…”

Exploring the Daily Hassles of Neophyte Cycling Coaches

“…Within the context of sport, coaching is increasingly acknowledged as a stressful occupation (Carson et al, 2019;Frey, 2007;Kelley et al, 1999;Levey et al, 2009). Literature examining coach stress has typically focused on elite settings (see Didymus, 2017;Fletcher & Scott, 2010;Ntwanano et al, 2017) with a range of stressors identified, including organisational stressors; scrutiny from parents, public, and the media; the demands and expectations of the coach role; athletes' performance; athlete injury, coachability, professionalism, attitude, and commitment (Norris et al, 2017). There is a significant positive relationship between the frequency of organisational stressors and burnout, surface acting (i.e., emotional displays that do not reflect an individual's true feelings), and subjective performance (Arnold & Fletcher, 2021).…”

Design and preliminary validation of the barriers to sports coaching questionnaire for women in South Africa: An application of the ecological model

“…The BSCQW was underpinned by LaVoi and Dutove's (2012) ecological model. To help develop an initial item pool, a review of literature relating to the barriers experienced by women coaches was conducted (see e.g., Kamphoff & Gill, 2008;Kubayi et al, 2017;Kubayi et al, 2018;LaVoi & Dutove, 2012;Surujlal & Vyas-Doorgapersad, 2015). During this review, literature was searched for, reviewed, and aligned to one of the four levels of the ecological model.…”