ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1587900
This article is part of the Research TopicPsychological Factors in Physical Education and Sport - Volume VView all 33 articles
Research on Coach-Athlete Relationship and Team Performance Based on 3Cs Theory: The Chain Mediating Role of Emotional Intelligence and Athletic Engagement
Provisionally accepted
Fangfang Pan
Wenjie Sui*- Huaqiao University, Quanzhou, Fujian, China
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In the Chinese cultural context, the coach-athlete relationship has a certain hierarchical structure, is dominated by coach-centered formal training, and its development is influenced by history and culture. Based on the 3Cs theory, this study constructs a mechanism model of how coach -athlete relationship impacts team performance. Using structural equation modeling, multilevel path analysis was conducted on 1566 cross-sport athletes. By introducing two mediating variables, emotional intelligence and athletic engagement, the study explores the path of coach-athlete relationship on team performance. The research reveals that coach-athlete relationship exerts a notably positive influence on team performance (β=0.556, p<0.001), whose path of action showed a triple transduction dimension. Emotional intelligence has an independent mediating effect of 0.049(p<0.001). Athletic engagement shows an independent mediating effect of 0.094 (p<0.001).The chained mediating effect amounts to 0.014 (p<0.001). Results suggest that improving coach-athlete relationship, it can help to improve athletes' emotional intelligence and engagement levels, thereby promoting team performance, which offers specific strategies and methods to boost team performance, holding great theoretical and practical significance.
Keywords: Coach-Athlete Relationship, team performance, Emotional Intelligence, Athletic, 3Cs Theory
Received: 05 Mar 2025; Accepted: 04 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Pan and Sui. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Wenjie Sui, Huaqiao University, Quanzhou, 362021, Fujian, China
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