The role of sport coaches on student-athletes’ life skills development and transfer: Using multilevel model analysis

Abstract

A structured sport environment is known to provide adequate conditions for the development and transfer of student-athletes’ life skills. However, recent research not only emphasizes the environment but also argues that the intentional effort of coaches such as life skills coaching is important. This study examines the role of coaches’ life skills coaching on the development and transfer of athletes’ life skills using a multilevel model. A total of 28 high school athletic teams (28 coaches, 291 student-athletes) were recruited to participate in the study, using cluster sampling. The life skills coaching of Level 2 (coaches) in sports were measured using the Korean version of the Coaching Life Skills in Sport Questionnaire (CLSS-Q). The life skills of the student-athletes at Level 1 were measured using the Life Skills Scale for Student-Athletes (LSSSA) and Korean version of Life Skills Transfer Survey (LSTS). Multilevel model analysis was conducted to analyze dyadic data. The result of analysis showed that three hypotheses were supported. Specifically, life skills development of student-athletes affected life skills transfer (Hypothesis 1), life skills coaching affected student-athletes’ life skills transfer (Hypothesis 2), and the interaction effect between life skills coaching and development affected life skills transfer of student-athletes (Hypothesis 3). We conclude that coaches should use intentional life skills coaching strategies to maximize student-athlete life skills development and transfer to daily life.