Abstract
The influence of gender in sport has been well documented (Fortier, Vallerand, Briere, & Provencher, 1995). Within the discipline of sport psychology, gender differences have been found in athletes' attitudes towards general psychological services (Martin, Wrisberg, Beitel, & Lounsbury, 1997), working with sport psychology consultants (Martin, 2005), and using sport psychology training on their own (Anderson, Hodge, Lavallee, & Martin, 2004). Similar findings have been reported with coaches (Zakrajsek & Zizzi, 2007). The present study examined the influence of athlete and coach gender on coaches' use of psychological skills training. Canadian curling coaches (n = 147) completed a revised version of Bull, Albinson, and Shambrook's (2002) Mental Skills Questionnaire (MSQ) which measures seven factors: imagery ability, mental preparation, self-confidence, anxiety and worry management, concentration ability, relaxation ability, and motivation. A 2 by 2 factorial MANOVA was run to see if the seven factors of the revised-MSQ differed by gender of coach or gender of athlete. There was no significant interaction, and no main effect for gender of coach. However, there was a significant (p < .001) main effect for gender of athletes. Follow up tests revealed that coaches reported a significantly greater frequency of each of these PST skills with female athletes than their male counterparts (p < .01). These results are consistent with previous research and suggest that gender of athlete may be a significant factor on psychological skills use by athletes. Implications for coaching education and sport performance are discussed.
