ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1630005
This article is part of the Research TopicEnvironmental Determinants of Athletes’ Development and PerformanceView all 4 articles
Cultural Attitudes Toward Sport Psychology: Insights from Italian Athletes and Coaches
Provisionally accepted
- 1Children’s Research Institute, Children’s National Hospital, Washington DC, United States
- 2College of Allied Health and Nursing - Sports, Exercise, and Performance Psychology, Minnesota State University, Mankato, MN, United States
- 3Psychology Department, University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse, WI, United States
- 4School of Psychology, Sport, and Health Science, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, United Kingdom
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Sport psychology (SP) examines the mental factors that influence athletic performance and well-being. Although the field has experienced substantial global growth over the past decade, much of the existing literature remains rooted in Anglo-Saxon cultural contexts, raising questions about its applicability in other cultural contexts. This study explored context-specific perceptions of SP by examining the attitudes of two key sport stakeholders-Italian athletes (n = 298; 50.17%) and coaches (n = 296; 49.83%). Participants (male = 324; 54.45%; female = 270; 45.55%) represented both individual and team sports, across elite and non-elite competitive levels. An online survey assessed participants' perceptions and attitudes toward SP services and professionals. Using Brislin's back-translation method, we adapted the SPA-R and SPARC-2 into Italian. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the internal structure of the instruments in the Italian sample. We then examined differences in attitudes by stakeholder role, gender, age, and competitive level. Overall, both athletes and coaches reported low levels of stigma and high confidence in SP and its services. However, significant differences were observed across demographic groups. This study provides a culturally grounded snapshot of the current sport psychology landscape in Italy, highlighting context-specific attitudes and offering valuable insights for enhancing the cultural relevance of SP services and advancing global understanding of the field.
Keywords: Athletes, Coaches, sports psychology, attitudes towards sport psychology, Cultural context
Received: 16 May 2025; Accepted: 22 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Simonti, Kamphoff, McAlarnen, Kratimenos and Quartiroli. 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: Ale Quartiroli, Psychology Department, University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse, WI, United States
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