Abstract

Various sport associations employ coaches to shape the environment that children and youth experience. Specifically, a coach’s style of interaction often directly or indirectly influences youth participation and motivation. While research suggests that adopting autonomy-supportive coaching behaviors enhance children and youth well-being and promote overall healthy development, not every coach uses this particular coaching strategy. The present study therefore sought to examine the determinants of coaches’ autonomy-supportive behaviors. The constructs under investigation included ego-involvement, coaching efficacy, perceived athlete competence, and pressure. Data were collected from 100 coaches who currently coach an individual or team sport within the Montreal region. The results demonstrated that motivation efficacy, a sub-factor within coaching efficacy, and perceived athlete competence were positively related to coaches’ autonomy-supportive behaviors. The findings present important implications for practitioners regarding training and development opportunities. In addition, suggestions are provided for managers to superimpose the model on the supervisor-employee relationship.