The purpose of the current study was to investigate factors affecting the job satisfaction of Canadian male university basketball coaches, as it pertained to their goals and measures of success for themselves, their athletes, and their team. Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with six university coaches. Three higher-order categories emerged: (a) personal variables, which encompassed the philosophies the participants developed based on their athletic and coaching experiences, (b) internal elements, which involved what the coaches did for their athletes' academic, athletic, and personal development and the coaches' personal development, and (c) external influences, which included tangible and measurable positive and negative factors that affected the level of satisfaction derived from the other higher order categories. These results provide a clearer understanding of factors that affect coaches' job satisfaction, as well as the goals that coaches set and how they measure success. In addition, this information may be incorporated into coach training programs.

The purpose of this study was to assess the level of perceived social support reported among student-athletes from their strength coach (SC) during the later reconditioning stage of rehabilitation. Data from (n = 82) participants were utilized in this study from 6 Division I Universities in the Midwest region of the United States. Each participant reported being injured for a minimum of 5 consecutive days or more. Participants were administered a survey packet consisting of; 1 demographic form, 2 consent forms, and 3 social support survey forms consisting of 6 types of social support measured on a 5 point Likert scale. The 6 types of social support assessed included; listening support, task appreciation, task challenge, emotional support, emotional challenge, and reality confirmation.AChi-Square Test was employed to assess the injured student-athlete's level of perceived social support received from their SC's during the later reconditioning stage of rehabilitation. Results showed that SC's have a significant psychosocial impact on a student-athletes overall psychological well-being during reconditioning. In conjunctionwith similar research, listening support, task appreciation, task challenge, and reality confirmation showed to be reported most frequent among student-athletes as needed or expected and most salient for their overall mental well-being during reconditioning.Among genders both male and female participants reported expecting and/or needing task challenge and reality confirmation from their SC's in addition, both male and female participants also reported task challenge and reality confirmation as the types of social support received from their SC's that was most important for their overall psychological well-being during the later reconditioning stage of rehabilitation. Furthermore, emotional challenge was reported the least overall among participants and among genders.This study provided sufficient evidence of the important psychosocial role that SC's can play during the later reconditioning stage of rehabilitation to injured student-athletes. Furthermore, the results of this study support other similar studies which also assessed the psychological impact of social support provided by the athletic trainer (AT) which was reported among student-athletes during rehabilitation. / School of Physical Education, Sport, and Exercise Science

Access to abstract permanently restricted to Ball State community only. / School of Physical Education, Sport, and Exercise Science

The purpose of this study was to determine if mentoring functions provided within a head coach — assistant coach dyad correlated to overall job satisfaction and occupational turnover intent of Division I Assistant Women Soccer Coaches. This study attempted to identify gender differences in perceived mentor functions and overall occupational turnover intent of Assistant Soccer Coaches. Data from this study helps define the head coach — assistant coach relationship and is applicable to the further development and retention of female collegiate coaches.A purposeful sample of Division I Assistant Women's Soccer Coaches was identified using the 2005 — 2006 National Directory of College Athletics, corresponding institutional athletic websites, and on-line email directories. Participants (N = 182) completed the questionnaire that contained four scales: Mentor Role Instrument, Abridged Job Descriptive Index, Job in General Scale, and an Occupational Turnover Intent Scale.Descriptive tests analyzed the perceived mentor functions that Division I Assistant Women's Soccer Coaches. Participants reported receiving slightly more psychosocial functions (M = 81.1, SD = +1- 32.318) than career-related functions (M = 76.6, SD = +1- 25.001). An independent T-test identified the psychosocial function of social as the only significant gender difference of perceived mentor functions.A Pearson Correlation identified a significant moderate correlation (r = .596; p < .05) between all of the mentor functions and job satisfaction with the exception of the mentor function of parent that demonstrated a low correlation value (r = .236; p <.05). Variance levels demonstrate that mentoring does play a moderately significant role in the job satisfaction of Assistant Women Soccer Coaches; however, other employment factors also contribute to their overall job satisfaction.A regression analysis (p < .05) determined the relationship between mentoring and occupational turnover intent. Psychosocial functions (p = .030) and gender (p = .002) were found to be significant predictors as to how frequently Assistant Women's Soccer Coaches think about getting out of coaching. However, only psychosocial functions (p = .038) presented a significant prediction relationship to actual occupational turnover intent in Assistant Women's Soccer Coaches.According the findings of this study, similar perceived mentor functions were reported by both male and female participants. Mentoring was found to play a significant role in the overall job satisfaction of Assistant Soccer Coaches. In addition, the variables of psychosocial functions and gender were identified as significant predictors of occupational turnover intent. / School of Physical Education, Sport, and Exercise Science

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Auburn University, 2007. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographic references (ℓ. )

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Washington State University, December 2008. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Dec. 31, 2008). "College of Education." Includes bibliographical references (p. 84-92).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Springfield College, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 2007. / Title from title page screen (viewed on June 4, 2008). Thesis advisor: Craig A. Wrisberg. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Georgia Southern University, 2008. / "A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Georgia Southern University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Education." Under the direction of Abebayehu Tekleselassie. ETD. Electronic version approved: May 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 83-89) and appendices.