PLAYER ABILITY, COACH FEEDBACK, AND FEMALE ADOLESCENT ATHLETES PERCEIVED COMPETENCE AND SATISFACTION

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between athl ete ability and coach feedback with perceived competence and satisfact ion among female adolescent athletes. Athletes (N = 123) reported thei r perceptions of coaches' use of feedback their own field hockey compe tence, and satisfaction with the coach and team involvement. In additi on, coaches' ratings of athletes' ability were obtained. Analyses reve aled that both ability and coach feedback were significantly related t o perceived competence and satisfaction Specifically, a hierarchical r egression analysis revealed that higher ability, more frequent praise and information, and less frequent encouragement and corrective inform ation were related to higher perceived competence. Further, a canonica l correlation analysis revealed that higher ability, frequent praise a nd information after a good performance, and frequent encouragement an d corrective information after an error were associated with greater s atisfaction with the coach and team involvement. The results are discu ssed in relation to Harter's (1978) competence motivation theory.