Effects of the Empowering Coaching training program on the coach created motivational climate, psychological need satisfaction and team cohesion

Sofia Mosqueda¹Jeanette M. López-Walle^1*Luis Ródenas Cuenca¹José Tristan¹Inés Tomás²Isabel Balaguer³Joan Duda⁴

• ¹Facultad de Organización Deportiva, Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, San Nicolas de los Garza, Nuevo Leon, Mexico
• ²Department of Behavioral Sciences Methodology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain
• ³Department of Social Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain
• ⁴School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, England, United Kingdom

This study examined the longitudinal effects of a coach education program (based on Empowering Coaching™) implemented in a school-based setting on young athletes' perceptions of the motivational climate, satisfaction of basic psychological needs, and team cohesion across a sport season. Participants were 314 athletes (12–16 years, M = 15.11, SD = 1.30) at baseline, of whom 143 completed post-intervention assessments (45.5% retention). Twenty-five coaches engaged in workshops and guided reflections over a 7-month period. Athletes completed questionnaires assessing motivational climate, need satisfaction, and cohesion at the beginning and end of the season. Paired-sample analyses revealed significant small-to-moderate improvements in athletes' perceptions of an empowering climate, autonomy and relatedness satisfaction, and social cohesion, whereas competence satisfaction and task cohesion showed no significant change. Effect sizes, although modest, indicate practical benefits in fostering athletes' sense of autonomy and belonging within school sport. To further examine mechanisms, structural equation modelling (a statistical technique used to test complex variable relationships) demonstrated that perceptions of an empowering climate directly predicted task cohesion and indirectly predicted social cohesion through autonomy satisfaction. Notably, several limitations temper these findings: the absence of a control group, reliance on self-reports, and attrition reduce causal inference and may introduce bias. Despite these constraints, the results highlight the potential of Empowering Coaching™ training to enhance motivational processes and group functioning in youth sport, while underscoring the need for more rigorous, controlled trials to confirm these effects.