An investigation into the impact of coach leadership and coach-athlete relationship on group cohesion

This study examined the extent to which athletes' perceptions of their relationship with their coach add to the prediction of team cohesion beyond what is predicted by perceptions of coach leadership. Four self-report instruments that measure perceptions of group cohesion, coach leadership, and the nature of coach-athlete relationships were completed by 111 university athletes. Multiple regression analyses revealed the variance accounted for by the hierarchically ordered sets of variables in task and social cohesion. Overall, the results revealed that leadership variables predicted more variance in task and social cohesion when relationship variables were included. Moreover, leadership and relationship variables were shown to be better and stronger predictors of task cohesion (R-2 = .34) than social cohesion (R-2 = .15). Limitations and future research directions are discussed.