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

INTRODUCTION: This study examined the longitudinal effects of a coach education program (based on Empowering Coaching™), implemented in a school-based setting across the sport season, on young athletes' perceptions of the motivational climate, satisfaction of basic psychological needs, and team cohesion across a sport season. METHODS: Participants were 314 athletes from Mexico (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 the prevailing motivational climate, need satisfaction, and cohesion at the beginning and end of the season. RESULTS: 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. To further examine hypothesized mechanisms, structural equation modeling indicated that perceptions of an empowering climate directly predicted changes in task cohesion and indirectly predicted social cohesion through changes in autonomy satisfaction. DISCUSSION: The findings highlight the potential of an extended, collaborative and multi-activity delivery of Empowering Coaching™ training to promote young athletes' feelings of autonomy and belonging as well as group functioning within competitive school sport.