An examination of stress and coping among youth and high school sport coaches

Youth and high school sport coaches serve important roles in the lives of children and adolescents, including being able to remain composed when coaching these young athletes. While sport psychology literature has examined conditions of stress or anxiety among athletes, collegiate coaches or professional coaches, the extent of stress and anxiety of youth coaches and high school coaches do not appear to have been investigated in any systematic way. The intent of this dissertation was development of knowledge about perceptions of levels of stress and anxiety of individuals who coach youth and high school sports, as well as being informed about how such individuals report that they cope with challenging and demanding coaching situations. Within this context, a questionnaire was used to survey the extent to which a series of seventeen potential stressors were considered stressful to youth and high school sport coaches. Additionally, coaches were asked to select the five coping mechanisms they most frequently employ to manage stress related to coaching. Surveys were distributed to coaches across the United States via two methods: a paper version, and an electronic version which was posted online. Survey responses suggested that, overall, youth and high school athletic coaches were not frequently aware of the factors examined as highly stressful. In this regard, patterns among responses for five separate groups of coaches were then analyzed to provide additional insight. It was found that coaches who do cope with stress, reported that they frequently utilize internal or cognitive coping mechanisms in order to manage coaching-related stress. Response patterns from the survey were used to create guidelines for youth and high school sport coaches, and other individuals working with children and adolescents in managing coaches' stress.