Do nice coaches finish last? Exploring parental perceptions of a prospective, new coach

Abstract

Competence and warmth are two key dimensions in which we judge others. Although coaches and athletes perceive competence to be linked with coaching effectiveness (Kavussanu et al., 2008; Santos et al., 2010), some athletes' value coaches who are caring and warm (Fry & Gano-Overway, 2010). Despite the importance of competence and warmth characteristics in coaches, research on the value that parents ascribe to these attributes in coaches remains scarce. In the current study, we investigated the underlying reasons behind parents' judgments of suitability for inclusion of a new coach. Parents of competitive youth hockey players read a vignette describing a potential new coach, which either emphasized warmth, competence, or generally positive (control) characteristics. Parents then answered an open-ended question assessing why or why not the prospective new coach was suitable for their child's team (N = 179 written responses). A content analysis of parents' writings revealed that competence characteristics were a salient reason for including the potential new coach across conditions (20%), as opposed to the 15% who expressed importance for warmth, and 13% who wrote about both dimensions. Interestingly, of those who read a competence-only description, there were very few participants who expressed support for warmth (6%), inferring that competence may be more salient than warmth in competitive youth hockey. The current findings support the notion that competitive hockey parents seek the most qualified individual to coach their child.