Self Esteem and Childrens Reactions to Youth Sport Coaching Behaviors: A Field Study of SelfEnhancem

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Self Esteem and Childrens Reactions to Youth
Sport Coaching BehaviorsA Field Study of
Self-Enhancement Processes

• Ronald E. Smith and Frank L. Smoll, 1990
• University of Washington
• Angela Hapke Cheris Samuels

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Outline

• Background information
• Research Question
• Methodology
• Results
• Interpretation Implications
• Conclusion

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Background Information

• Tesser, 1988 provided a study on the
  Self-enhancement Theory, which states that people
  are motivated by a general desire to achieve and
  maintain a positive self-regard.
• The study reported by Jacob, Berscheid, and
  Walster, 1971 showed that male college students
  reacted more positively if the women accepted
  them, than if she had clearly rejected them,
  during feedback. Which supported the self
  enhancement theory.

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Background Information cont.

• Dittes 1959, selected subjects of various levels
  self-esteem, then reported feedback to each group
  of their acceptance. Dittes found that all groups
  preferred the accepting group. The difference
  between the attraction responses toward accepting
  and rejecting others, was especially large in the
  low self-esteem subjects.

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Background Information cont.

• Covington and Beery, 1977 found that children who
  have low self-esteem adopted strategies like
  avoiding participation, when they think they will
  fail. They set unrealistic goals and dont try
  hard on difficult tasks. The children seem highly
  motivated to avoid failure and preserve what
  little self worth they have.

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Research Question

• What is the difference between athletes
  self-esteem relating to supportiveness and
  development through instruction by their coaches
  (specifically baseball)?

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Methodologies

• Subjects
• 51 male head coaches
• 542 male athletes
• Little League Baseball Program
• Mean age of player is 11.12 years old
• 83 of study population was interviewed

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Methodologies cont.

• Instrumentation
• Individually administered interviews and
  questionnaire in childs homes
• Children were given 14 questions and asked to
  rate themselves on a 5-point scale ranging from
  very much like me to not at all like me (mean
  score was 50.66)
• The interview was given and the children rated
  themselves on a 7-point scale (for
  confidentiality)
• Last two weeks of season
• Coaching Behavior Assessment System Smith, Smoll,
  and Hunt, 1977a

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Methodologies cont.

• Coaching Behavior Assessment System
• This system was developed to permit the direct
  observation of coaches behavior during practices
  and games (Smith and Smoll, p.988).
• Every behavior the coaches exhibited was recorded
  during the game, between 175 to 250 were
  recorded.
• Frequency of behavior / Total behavior codes
  percentage for each of 12 categories
• The number they got was averaged across games to
  produce a mean percentage score for coaches
  behavior
• 12 categories divided into 2 major classes of
  behaviors
• 1. Reactive/ Spontaneous Behavior
• 2. Coding and Training Behavior

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Methodologies cont.Responses to desirable
performance/effort

• Reinforcement (R)
• Praising or patting on back
• Non-reinforcement (NR)
• Failure of acknowledgement
• Mistake-contingent Encouragement (EM)
• Reassurance
• Mistake-contingent Technical Instruction (TIM)
• Specific instruction on mistake

• Punishment (P)
• Criticizing
• Punitive Technical Instruction (PTIM)
• Negative instruction
• Ignoring Mistakes (IM)
• Lack of response to mistake

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Methodologies cont.Response to
misbehaviors/spontaneous behavior

• Keeping control (KC)
• Suppressing misbehavior and maintain order
• General Technical Instruction (TIG)
• Communication providing relevant instruction to
  technique and strategies of sport

• General Encouragement (EG)
• Future encouragement instead of responding to
  mistake
• Orientation (O)
• Administrative organization
• General Communication (GC)
• General conversation unrelated to sport

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Results

• Self-esteem is unrelated to attraction toward
  coaches
• Children were more attracted to coaches that
  scored high in supportiveness and instruction.
• The greatest differences in attraction scores
  toward their coach who differed in instruction
  and supportiveness came in children with low
  self-esteem.

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Implications and Interpretations

• This study only involved male coaches and
  children.
• High self-esteem individuals may be less affected
  by the reactions of any one person (the coach)
• The failure to find a main effect on attraction
  response or to involve childs self-esteem is
  inconsistent with self-enhancement model.
• Coaches that are punitive tend to give most deal
  of attention
• This study can be applied to any setting that has
  children and adult interactions.
• Restricted to liking of coach and didnt
• consider liking of sport and teammates

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Conclusion

• Smith and Smoll said
• Consistent with predictions derived from
  self-enhancement, children who were low in self
  esteem responded most positively to coaches who
  were reinforcing and encouraging and most
  negatively to coaches who were low on this
  supportiveness dimension (Smith and Smoll, 1990
  p.987)

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Questions and Comments