The Effect of Coach-Athlete Relationship on Sport Performance Satisfaction—Serial Multiple Mediating Effects of Hope and Athlete Engagement

In order to explore the effect of coach-athlete relationship(CAR)on sport performance satisfaction,as well as the serial multiple mediating effects of hope and athlete engagement,this paper used questionnaires to measure 483 Chinese active athletes.The result showed that:1)CAR could significantly positively predict sport performance satisfaction on the whole(β=0.43,P<0.001),as well as could significantly positively predict hope(β=0.37,P<0.001)and athlete engagement(β=0.21,P<0.001).Hope and athlete engagement could significantly positively predict sport performance satisfaction(β=0.47,P<0.001;β=0.20,P<0.001).2)CAR affected sport performance satisfaction through four ways:through direct effect;through the mediating effect of hope;through the mediating effect of athlete engagement;through the serial multiple mediating effects of hope and athlete engagement.3)The mediating effect model had satisfactory fitting goodness and could explain 57% variance of sport performance satisfaction.To some degree,it could explained the mechanism of coach-athlete relationship impacting sport performance satisfaction.4)Four dimensions of coach-athlete relationship,namely closeness,commitment,complementarity,and submissiveness,had different predictive effects on sport performance satisfaction.By contrast,commitment had the most predictive effect.The results enlightened us that through improving the quality of CAR,athletes could increase the level of hope and engagement,and then promote sport performance satisfaction.In the management of the coach-athlete relationship,we should focus on cultivating athletes' and coaches' commitment,rather than blindly emphasizing on domination and submission.