Relationships among coach burnout, coach behaviors, and athletes' psychological responses

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship among coac h burnout, coaching behaviors, and athletes' psychological responses using Chelladurai's (1980, 1990) multidimensional model of leadership as a theore tical framework. Two questions were addressed: (a) Do coaches who vary in l evel of burnout differ in the behaviors athletes perceive they exhibit? (b) Are coaching behaviors related to athletes' enjoyment, perceived competenc e, anxiety, and burnout? A sample of 193 female soccer players and 15 head coaches of high school teams completed measures of the constructs of intere st. Coaches higher in emotional exhaustion were perceived by their teams as providing less training and instruction and social support and making fewe r autocratic and greater democratic decisions. For the second question, ath letes' perceptions of greater training and instruction, social support, pos itive feedback, democratic decisions, and less autocratic style were relate d to more positive (i.e., perceived competence, enjoyment) and less negativ e (i.e., anxiety, burnout) psychological outcomes.