The purpose of the study was to examine athlete leader fairness in relation to athlete leadership behaviours and cohesion. Participants included 363 intercollegiate team sport athletes from Canada and the United States. Participants completed the Leadership Scale for Sports (Chelladurai & Saleh [1980]. Dimensions of leader behavior in sports: Development of a leadership scale. Journal of Sport Psychology, 2(1), 34-45. https://doi.org/10.1123/jsp.2.1.34) to assess athlete leadership, Group Environment Questionnaire (Eys, Carron, et al., [2007]. Item wording and internal consistency of a measure of cohesion: The Group Environment Questionnaire. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 29(3), 395-402. https://doi.org/10.1123/jsep.29.3.395) to measure cohesion, and a leader fairness inventory (Colquitt [2001]. On the dimensionality of organizational justice: A construct validation of a measure. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(3), 386-400. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.86.3.386). Structural equation modelling was used to assess athlete leader fairness as a mediator in the relationship between athlete leadership behaviours and cohesion. Positive relationships were found between athlete leadership behaviours of training and instruction, social support, and positive feedback with dimensions of athlete leader fairness, whereas autocratic behaviour was found to have a negative relationship with athlete leader fairness. Procedural fairness was positively related to all dimensions of cohesion, and interpersonal fairness was positively related to ATG-S. Regarding indirect effects, significant effects were found between athlete leadership behaviours and cohesion through the mediators of procedural fairness and interpersonal fairness. From these findings, procedural fairness was identified as a full mediator between training and instruction and all dimensions of cohesion, and interpersonal fairness was identified as a full mediator in the following relationships: autocratic behaviour-to-ATG-S, social support-to-ATG-S, and positive feedback-to-ATG-S. The present findings provide support for athlete leaders as a source of leader fairness in team sport. The findings also suggest that fairness may help explain why leadership behaviours positively relate to cohesion, indicating that athlete leaders should provide fair leadership to their team members.

The purpose of this commentary is to provide a broad overview of the empirical research-based articles published in the International Sport Coaching Journal from its inception in 2014 through 2020. Data from 101 publications were collected and analyzed using Arksey and O’Malley’s six-stage framework for conducting scoping reviews. Data were extracted on the size and scope of research, populations and perspectives studied, and methodologies and data collection methods used. The results show that empirical research publications grew more prominent over time (i.e., 24.0% of 2014 publications vs. 58.1% of 2020 publications) compared with other publication types. The most commonly researched topics included coach development and coach behaviors. The participants most studied were male coaches, performance sport coaches, and adult sport coaches, featuring primarily European and North American coaches. The majority of studies used a qualitative methodology with the most common research designs being phenomenological and case studies. A variety of data collection methods were used that involved one-on-one interviews and questionnaires. Several recommendations are advanced to stakeholders, including strategies to promote racial and gender diversity and to collect and report demographic data on race and coaching experience.

The present case study aimed to modify, implement, and evaluate a sport-specific dissonance-based body image promotion intervention for female adolescent athletes. The case included 33 female adolescent soccer players (11–14 years old) who completed the Youth-Female Athlete Body Project, a 4-week team-based intervention. The intervention was evaluated using quantitative measures gathered pre- and postintervention and qualitative responses from focus groups that were administered 1-week postintervention. The quantitative assessments examined body-ideal internalization, aesthetic and functional body image, perceived body shape, and fat talk. Significant decreases in participants’ thin-ideal and muscular-ideal internalization as well as fat talk were found postintervention. Focus groups were conducted with a subset of participants (n = 24) to gather insight into the positives and negatives of the intervention, intervention outcomes, and recommendations for future intervention delivery. Reflections from the practitioners are provided and recommendations for effective intervention implementation from practitioners’ and participants’ perspectives are discussed.

The purpose of the current study was to explore graduate students’ mental health and educational experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Graduate students (N = 28) in Canada completed an online survey consisting of both closed- and open-ended questions related to their mental health, degree progress, and access to campus workspace. Data were analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative approaches before being synthesized through a pillar integration joint display to merge study findings. Based on self-report data, approximately 60% of participants were experiencing poor-to-moderate mental health at the time of the survey. Participants also expressed dissatisfaction with online learning and felt uncertain about their degree trajectory due to changes and restrictions associated with the pandemic. Based on the participants’ responses, recommendations for assisting graduate students during the pandemic are presented. Highlighted by these recommendations is the importance of accessing workspace on campus and the challenges associated with university mental health resources. Overall, nearly 16 months into the pandemic, participants’ mental health was negatively impacted by the restrictions. Although the study findings may not be generalizable to all post-secondary institutions, they can be used to inform university administrators regarding the continued challenges facing graduate students during the pandemic.

Did you know that not just coaches can be leaders on sport teams? Athletes are also an important source of leadership within teams. When you think of athletes performing leadership roles, you probably think of captains or assistant captains. While these are important sources of team leadership, athletes do not need to be captains or assistant captains to be leaders. In fact, all athletes can display leadership through their behaviors. Coaches can help athletes to be a part of team leadership. We provide some suggestions on how coaches can facilitate the development of leadership skills in their athletes. If athletes are not comfortable being team leaders, they can provide leadership by mentoring fellow teammates. There are many ways that athletes can provide leadership to their teams!

Adult women report significant body dissatisfaction yet are often overlooked in body image promo-tion programs. Although few venues afford opportune settings for intervening with adult women, the church serves as a regular meeting place for many in the South of the United States. This study tested a dissonance-based body image program, Reclaiming Beauty (RB), adapted for adult women in church settings. Six groups (n = 30) were led by two trained church leaders (peer-led) and three groups (n = 21) were led by a trained peer leader and a researcher (researcher-co-led). RB participants, aged 30-77 years (M = 53.1 +/- 12.7), completed assessments pre-intervention, immediately post-intervention, and 6 months post-intervention. Waitlist-controls (n = 31) completed assessments at time intervals consistent with intervention participants. RB participants reported significantly decreased thin-ideal internalization, body surveillance, and eating psychopathology at post-intervention and at 6 months post-intervention relative to controls. RB participants also reported significantly increased body satisfaction immediately post-intervention relative to controls, but this was not significant at 6 months post-intervention. Peer-led groups outperformed researcher-co-led groups on body surveillance at 6 months, but RB conditions did not otherwise differ. Our findings provide preliminary support for the dissemination of a culturally-modified dissonance-based body image program to adult women in church settings. (c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the role and responsibilities of sport coaches changed dramatically (e.g., coaching virtually; Kelly, Erickson, & Turnnidge, 2020). Although recommendations for coaching during the pandemic were available (e.g., provide psychological support, have athletes set goals; Filiz et al., 2020), researchers have expressed a need to hear from those involved in such practices (e.g., coaches, athletes; Kelly, Erickson, et al., 2020). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of university athletes during the pandemic concerning the perceptions of their coaches' involvement during the early stages of the pandemic. University athletes (N = 25; male n = 12; female n = 13) participated in a one-on-one semi-structured interview in June 2020, which were then transcribed verbatim and analyzed using a thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006, 2019). Four main themes were identified that highlighted the coaches' role in: (1) fostering shared leadership (e.g., seeking input from athlete leaders), (2) facilitating team discussions (e.g., athlete wellness and mental health), (3) enhancing motivation (e.g., unique training activities), and (4) providing support (e.g., checking in with athletes). In addition, while these themes were often seen as positive in nature, some athletes expressed dissatisfaction with the level of coach involvement (e.g., too many meetings, forced communication). Despite the challenges associated with coaching during the pandemic, coaches attempted to engage their team in a variety of ways. Given the variance in athletes' perceived satisfaction with such actions, future research is needed to identify recommendations for how coaches should navigate these times.

Coaches and athlete leaders are two integral sources of leadership in teams. As explained by the Full Range Model of Leadership (Avolio, 1999), the most active and effective form of leadership is transformational leadership. Transformational leadership is the process of a leader encouraging their followers to act beyond their own self-interests and develop into leaders (Burns, 1978). While transformational leadership has been shown to result in positive team outcomes (Price & Weiss, 2013), less is known about athletes' preferences regarding how coaches and athlete leaders display transformational leadership. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare preferences for transformational athlete leadership and coach behaviours. Kinesiology students with previous sport experience (N = 193) rated their preferences for transformational leadership behaviours using coach and athlete leader versions of Differentiated Transformational Leadership Inventory (Callow et al., 2009). The results from a repeated measures MANOVA showed a significant difference in preferences for athlete leadership behaviours and coach behaviours, F(7, 186) = 21.93, p < .001; Wilk's ? = .554; partial ?2 = .446. Specifically, participants reported a preference for coaches to exhibit individualized consideration (p < .001), inspirational motivation (p < .001), intellectual stimulation (p < .001), fostering acceptance of group goals (p < .001), high performance expectations (p = .015), and appropriate role modeling (p < .001), more frequently than athlete leaders. The present findings extend our understanding of how athletes prefer the leaders on their team to demonstrate transformational leadership behaviours.

Abstract This chapter focuses on the emerging area of athlete leadership. The chapter examines the theories, methodologies, and interventions that have been used to study athlete leadership. Athlete leadership is defined as an athlete who occupies a formal or informal leadership role within the team and influences team members to achieve a common goal. When leadership is viewed from this perspective, all athletes have the opportunity to engage and provide leadership to their teammates. Researchers have applied various theories to understand and explain athlete leadership. At present, there is no gold-standard measure of athlete leadership behaviors that has been specifically developed to examine this construct. Further, there are only a handful of published articles that report on the development of athlete leadership. Consequently, the goal of this chapter is to highlight the opportunities that exist in the area of athlete leadership from theoretical, methodological, and applied perspectives.

The general objective of this chapter is to provide an overview of athlete leadership within the context of youth sport. To achieve this objective, the theories and models used to understand athlete leadership are presented that include a description of Avolio's (1999) Full Range Model of Leadership and Chelladurai's (2007) Multidimensional Model of Leadership. The next section of the chapter provides a review of the measurement concerning athlete leadership in youth sport. Subsequently, the findings that pertain to how athlete leadership influences team functioning are presented. Next, a summary of the literature concerning the development of athlete leadership is offered by distinguishing between leader and leadership development. The chapter concludes by highlighting some of the future directions as it relates to youth sport.

To review the status of community-based disordered eating and obesity prevention programs from 2014 to 2019. In the last 5 years, prevention programs have found success in intervening with children and parental figures in wellness centers, physical activity centers, childcare centers, workplaces, online, and over-the-phone through directly reducing disordered eating and obesity or by targeting risk factors of disordered eating and obesity. Community-based prevention programs for disordered eating and programs targeting both disordered eating and obesity were scarce, highlighting the critical need for the development of these programs. Qualities of the most effective programs were those in which parents and children were educated on physical activity and nutrition via multiple group-based sessions. Limitations of current prevention programs include few programs targeting high-risk populations, a dearth of trained community members serving as facilitators, inconsistent reporting of adherence rates, and few direct measurements of disordered eating and obesity, as well as few long-term follow-ups, precluding the evaluation of sustained effectiveness.

Fairness is defined as an individualized perception of an action or statement as appropriate and just according to group rules and standards (Blanchard, 1986; Mallard, Lamont, & Guetzkow, 2009). The purpose of the study was to examine athlete leader fairness in relation to athlete leadership behaviours, cohesion, and athlete satisfaction. Participants were 203 (male n = 113; female n = 90; Mage = 19.85 years, SD = 1.51) intercollegiate team sport athletes. Participants completed the Leadership Scale for Sports (Chelladurai & Saleh, 1980), Differentiated Transformational Leadership Inventory (Callow, Smith, Hardy, Arthur, & Hardy, 2009), Group Environment Questionnaire (Eys, Carron, Bray, & Brawley, 2007), Athlete Satisfaction Questionnaire (Riemer & Chelladurai, 1998), and a leader fairness inventory (Colquitt, 2001). Data were analyzed using path analysis to examine relationships among the variables. Task-oriented leadership predicted procedural fairness (B = .48) and distributive fairness (B = .46), transformational leadership predicted distributive fairness (B = .31), interpersonal fairness (B = .39), and informational fairness (B = .39), and transactional leadership predicted procedural fairness (B = .23), interpersonal fairness (B = .21), and informational fairness (B = .13). In turn, procedural and distributive fairness predicted task cohesion (B = 1.52 and 1.54, respectively), which then predicted satisfaction with performance (B = .40) and the team (B = 1.19). Findings from the present study provide support for athlete leaders as a source of leader fairness perceptions in team sport. Additionally, perceptions of athlete leader fairness are identified as an antecedent of cohesion and athlete satisfaction.