The coach-athlete relationship as a mediator between leadership styles and referee interactions in team sports
Keywords:
Coach-athlete relationship, leadership, mediating role, mixed method, referee interactionAbstract
This study aims to examine how coach leadership styles, as perceived by male athletes in team sports, affect interactions with referees during competitions. Specifically, it investigates the mediating role of the coach-athlete relationship in this process using a mixed-methods design. The "Sequential Explanatory Mixed Design," utilizing both quantitative and qualitative methods, was adopted in the study. In the quantitative phase, data were analyzed from 258 participants (athletes, coaches, and referees) working in the Northeast Anatolia Region (TRA2) using the Leadership in Sports, Referee Self-Efficacy, and Coach Communication scales. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used for data analysis. In the qualitative phase, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 participants (8 coaches, 8 athletes, 8 referees) selected via maximum variation sampling, and data were analyzed using content analysis. The path analysis results revealed that coach leadership style significantly and negatively predicted referee self-efficacy ($\beta = -0.476, p = 0.034$). Conversely, leadership style had a strong positive effect on coach-athlete communication ($\beta = 0.480, p < 0.001$). Furthermore, coach-athlete communication positively predicted referee self-efficacy ($\beta = 0.318, p = 0.042$). These findings confirm that while leadership style has a direct negative impact on referee interaction, this relationship is mitigated through the partial mediating role of coach-athlete communication. The results of the study indicate that the coach's leadership style directly affects the interaction with the referee, but a healthy communication established between the coach and the athlete acts as a buffer in this process, mitigating negative effects. Ideally, training programs should focus on communication strategies to manage this dynamic.
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