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Cited by 101Sport Psychology and PerformanceStress and Burnout ResearchStudent Stress and Coping

Olympic and international level sports coaches’ experiences of stressors, appraisals, and coping

Open access
Didymus, Faye F.·2017·Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health
DOI 10.1080/2159676x.2016.1261364
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Abstract

The aim of this study was to use the cognitive-motivational-relational theory (CMRT) of stress and emotions as a lens to explore psychological stress with Olympic and international level sports coaches. In particular, the study aimed to explore situational properties of stressors and coaches’ appraisals to address voids in the published literature. Guided by my constructionist epistemological position that contains traces of post-positivism and my relativist view of reality, I conducted semi-structured interviews with six women and nine men. I applied abductive logic during latent thematic analyses to organise and analyse the data. The findings suggest that the coaches experienced many stressors that related to 10 themes (e.g. athlete concerns, performance) and that these stressors were underpinned by seven situational properties (e.g. ambiguity, imminence, novelty). The coaches reported challenge and threat appraisals and, to a lesser extent, benefit and harm/loss appraisals. The ways of coping that were discussed with the coaches related to seven families of coping (e.g. dyadic coping, support seeking) that each play a different role in adaptive processes. Collectively, the findings shed new light on the explanatory potential of situational properties and appraisals and go some way towards understanding coaches’ diverse experiences. The CMRT was a useful framework for understanding high level coaches’ stress transactions and, thus, could be used in future research with this unique population. Coaches, practitioners, and researchers should attend to the ways that coaches appraise and cope with stressors to facilitate their adaptation to the potentially stressful nature of coaching at the highest levels.

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  • Elite-level coaches operate in the same elite-level environments as athletes but arguably possess a greater set of performance and organisational responsibilities.

    “This is significant as coaches operate in the same elite-level environments as athletes, but arguably possess a greater set of performance and organisational responsibilities, given they are often expected to manage and oversee the performances of multiple athletes [7], whilst simultaneously acting as the public face and cultural identity of a sporting organisation [1].”

    From The Mental Health of Elite-Level Coaches: A Systematic Scoping Review (2024) · cites this paper as [7]

    The introduction describes elite coaches’ multiple roles and responsibility for their own performance and that of the athletes they work with. The Stressors Experienced by the Coaches section also reports coaching responsibilities and organizational management. The paper does not compare coaches’ responsibilities with athletes’ or establish that they operate in identical environments; the separate claim about being an organization’s public face is attached to another citation. (LLM, conf=0.84)

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  • Elite-level coaches encounter organisational challenges including long working hours, job insecurity, media scrutiny, and pressures to satisfy board/management expectations.

    “On top of performance pressures, elite-level coaches also encounter multiple organisational challenges, including long working hours, job insecurity, media scrutiny and pressures to satisfy board/management expectations [1, 6–9].”

    From The Mental Health of Elite-Level Coaches: A Systematic Scoping Review (2024) · cites this paper as [7]

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5 of the 60 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. Schaffran, P., Altfeld, S., and Kellmann, M., 2016. Burnout in sport coaches: a review of correlates, measurement and intervention. Deutsche zeitschrift für sportmedizin, 67 (5), 121-125.

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Authors
Didymus, F. F.
Affiliations
Leeds Beckett University (GB)
Corresponding author
Didymus, Faye F.
ORCID
Didymus, Faye F.
Venue
Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health
Publisher
Informa UK Limited
Published
2016-12-26
Volume
9
Issue
2
Pages
214-232
ISSN
  • 1939-8441 (ISSN-L)
  • 2159-676X
  • 2159-6778
DOI
10.1080/2159676x.2016.1261364
OpenAlex
W2566656847
Cited by
101
References
60
Citations by year
2026: 8 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 23 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 5
FWCI
9.36
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Qualitative Research in Sport Exercise and Health (publishedVersion)
  • Leeds Beckett Repository (Leeds Beckett University) (acceptedVersion)
Funders
Leeds Beckett University (N/A)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Sport Psychology and Performance
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Stress and Burnout Research
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Student Stress and Coping
Keywords
sports coaches, psychological stress, stressors, stress appraisal, coping strategies, cognitive-motivational-relational theory, performance pressure, support seeking, dyadic coping

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