TY - JOUR

T1 - Lead Me to Train Better: Transformational Leadership's Moderation of the Negative Relationship Between Athlete Personality and Training Behaviors

AU - Zhang, Shuge

AU - Beattie, Stuart

AU - Pitkethly, Amanda

AU - Dempsey, Chelsey

N1 - as accepted for publication

PY - 2019/6

Y1 - 2019/6

N2 - High-quality training environments are essential for athletic peak performance. However, recent research highlighted that athletes' personality characteristics could undermine effective training. The current set of studies aimed to examine whether specific transformational leadership characteristics displayed by the coach would moderate the potential negative impacts of two personality traits (i.e., extraversion and neuroticism) on training behaviours. In study 1, ninety-nine university athletes completed questionnaires assessing personality, transformational leadership, and training behaviours. In study 2, eighty-four high-level athletes completed the same personality and transformational leadership questionnaires. However, in study 2 the head coaches assessed athletes’ training behaviours. Both studies showed that coach high-performance expectations moderated the extraversion-distractibility relationship. Further, both studies also demonstrated that the relationship between neuroticism and coping with adversity was moderated by coach’s inspirational motivation. Our findings highlight that extraversion and neuroticism can negatively relate to training behaviours, but such effects can be moderated by certain transformational leadership behaviours.

AB - High-quality training environments are essential for athletic peak performance. However, recent research highlighted that athletes' personality characteristics could undermine effective training. The current set of studies aimed to examine whether specific transformational leadership characteristics displayed by the coach would moderate the potential negative impacts of two personality traits (i.e., extraversion and neuroticism) on training behaviours. In study 1, ninety-nine university athletes completed questionnaires assessing personality, transformational leadership, and training behaviours. In study 2, eighty-four high-level athletes completed the same personality and transformational leadership questionnaires. However, in study 2 the head coaches assessed athletes’ training behaviours. Both studies showed that coach high-performance expectations moderated the extraversion-distractibility relationship. Further, both studies also demonstrated that the relationship between neuroticism and coping with adversity was moderated by coach’s inspirational motivation. Our findings highlight that extraversion and neuroticism can negatively relate to training behaviours, but such effects can be moderated by certain transformational leadership behaviours.

KW - extraversion

KW - high-quality training

KW - inspiring motivation

KW - neuroticism

KW - performance expectation

U2 - 10.1123/tsp.2018-0055

DO - 10.1123/tsp.2018-0055

M3 - Article

VL - 33

SP - 119

EP - 128

JO - Sport Psychologist

JF - Sport Psychologist

SN - 0888-4781

IS - 2

ER -