Relationship of Heterosexism and Team Cohesion in Women's Collegiate Athletics

Background/Purpose: Sport Psychology researchers have posited that homophobia and heterosexism likely hinder team cohesion (Forbes, Stevens, & Lathrop, 2001; Krane 1996, 1997; Vealey, 1997).  Research using general psychological instruments of homophobia has not been able to quantitatively measure a relationship (Forbes et al., 2001; Mullin, 2009).  Using a sport-specific questionnaire of heterosexism, this study explored whether team cohesion could be predicted by heterosexist attitudes of female collegiate athletes. 

Method: A national sample of female collegiate athletes (N = 595) completed the Heterosexist Attitudes in Sport – Lesbian (HAS-L; Mullin, 2013) scale, the Group Environment Questionnaire (GEQ; Carron, Widmeyer, & Brawley, 1985), and a demographic questionnaire online.  Participants represented 33 NCAA institutions and 16 sports. Correlational analyses and linear regression were conducted to determine if task and social components of team cohesion could be predicted by the sources of heterosexist attitudes. 

Analysis/Results: The four subscales of the HAS-L and a validity check question (VCQ; “How comfortable is your team with lesbian teammates?”) were significantly correlated with the subscales of the GEQ.  Attraction to Group – Social cohesion was significantly predicted by the HAS-L Inclusion Behaviors (IB; β = -0.12) and the VCQ (β = 0.11; F (5, 590) = 4.26, p = .001; r² = 0.04). Attraction to Group – Task cohesion was significantly predicted by the VCQ (β = 0.14), HAS-L Language Behaviors (LB; β = -0.13), and HAS-L IB (β = -0.09; F(5, 590) = 9.11, p < .001; r² = .07).  Group Integration – Social cohesion was significantly predicted by the VCQ (β = .14; F (5, 590) = 3.83, p = .002; r² = .03).  Group Integration – Task cohesion was significantly predicted by the VCQ (β = .17) and the HAS-L LB (β = -0.10; F (5, 590) = 9.43, p < .001; r² = .07). 

Conclusions: Using a sport-specific questionnaire, team cohesion can be predicted by the elements of heterosexist attitudes. One’s language and inclusion behaviors predicted one’s perceptions of team cohesion. Surprisingly, one’s thoughts and emotions, as measured by the Cognitive/Affective subscale of the HAS-L, did not significantly predict team cohesion. While previous researchers hypothesized that the social aspects of cohesion would be associated with homophobia/heterosexism (Forbes et al., 2001), heterosexist attitudes and the VCQ more strongly predicted perceptions of the team’s task cohesion. Consequently, practitioners should consider the potential negative effects heterosexist attitudes could have on the group’s unity towards task objectives.