Coaches as a potential source of athletes’ self-presentational concern

This study examined the association between athletes' perceptions of their coaches' views of the quality of their coach-athlete relationship (i.e., an athlete's meta-perception) and athletes' self-presentational concerns related to their coach. 119 athletes completed a modified version of the Self-Presentation in Sport Questionnaire (Wilson & Eklund, 1998) and the meta-version of the Coach-Athlete Relationship Questionnaire (Jowett, 2009). All self-presentational concerns were negatively associated with increased perceptions of closeness and positively associated with increased perceptions of commitment. Athletes appear to perceive their coach as a potential source of self-presentational concern and that these concerns are associated with inferences about their coaches' perception of the quality of that relationship. This suggests that a coach needs to be aware that how an athlete perceives the coach's perception of the quality of the relationship can potentially impact on the concerns experienced by that athlete.