Team cohesion is generally viewed as the degree to which team members hold an attraction for each other and a desire to remain intact as a team (Wolfe, 1988). The term cohesiveness has long been associated with the amount of ‘togetherness’ displayed by a team both on and off the field. Team cohesion is commonly defined as a dynamic process that is reflected in the tendency of a group to remain united in the pursuit of its goals and objectives (Carron, 2002). According to Yalom (1985), cohesiveness leads to increased self-esteem, more willingness to listen to others, freer expression of feeling, better reality testing, greater self-confidence, and members’ effective use of other members’ evaluations in enhancing their own development” (McAvoy and Mitten, 1996). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine team cohesion among Division II African American student athletes.
Method:
A convenient sample of student-athletes from classes in the Department of Health and Human Performance at a small southeastern private historically black college and university was utilized in the study. Team cohesion was measured using a Modified version of the Coaching Staff Cohesion Scale (Martin, 2002). The responses on the questionnaire ranged from 1 to 5 on a Likert scale with 1 being strongly disagree to 7 being strongly agree.
Analysis/Results:
Independent t-test and ANOVA were utilized to determine the differences between the demographic categories and the perception of team cohesion questions, alpha = .05. Student athletes reported means above 5.0 for the following questions, “I like the people on the coaching staff”, “The coaching staff is committed to the long term success of the team”, “The coaches share similar coaching philosophies”, and “I agree with the coaching style of this staff”. Females scored higher than males in regards to Question #18” The coaching staff sticks together”. Freshmen and sophomores scored higher than juniors and seniors in regards to Question #7,” I like the people on the coaching staff”, Question #8, “The coaching staff is committed to the long term success of the team”, and Question #12, “The coaches share similar coaching philosophies”
Conclusions:
Results from this study are similar to others in that student athletes have a positive perception of their team’s cohesion at this institution. However, more studies are needed among historically black colleges and universities. Recommendations are made to further examine team cohesion among African American college student athletes.