Syftet med studien var att undersöka lagidrottares uppfattning av tränarens uppgiftsinvolvering och dess effekt på upplevd lagsammanhållning och idrottsprestation utifrån kön och tävlingsnivå. Kopplingar gjordes till Need Achievement Theory, Achievement Goal Theory och Multidimensional Model of Leadership. Deltagare bestod av totalt N=220 manliga och kvinnliga lagidrottare från allsvenskan till U17. Frågeformulären bestod av CSAI-2, PeerMCYSQ och LSS. Resultaten visar att elitpresterande män har mer konkurrens inom lag och uppfattar tränaren som mer demokratisk än elitpresterande kvinnor. Elitpresterande kvinnor har mer förbättring inom lag. Amatörpresterande män har mindre konkurrens och uppfattar tränaren som mindre uppgiftsinvolverad. Slutsatsen är att lagidrottares olika uppfattning av tränares beteende kan bero på idrottares ansträngning, relationer och autonomi. Resultaten diskuteras i relation till tidigare studier och teori. Förslag på implikationer och framtida studie ges. / The purpose of this study was to investigate team sport athletes perception of the coachs’ task involvement and its’ effect on perceived team cohesion and athletic performance by gender and competition level. Connections were made to Need Achievement Theory, Achievement Goal Theory, and Multidimensional Model of Leadership. Participants consisted of a total of N=220 male and female team sport athletes from allsvenskan to U17. The questionnaires consisted of CSAI-2, PeerMCYSQ and LSS. The results shows that elite performing men have more competition within the team and perceive the coach as more democratic than elite performing women. Elite performing women have more improvement within the team. Amateur performing men have less competition and perceive the coach as less task involved. The conclusion is that team sport athletes varied perception of coaches behavior can depend on athletes effort, relations and autonomy. The results are discussed in relation to previous studies and theory. Suggestions on implications and future study is given.

The current study consisted of 4,116 student-athletes (Mage = 19.84; women = 66.9%; White = 78.2%) to achieve two purposes when considering the disrupting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the cancellation of collegiate sports. First, I examined the relationship between gender, race/ethnicity, competition level, and athletic identity. Though there were no significant differences across NCAA Divisional levels, I found a significant gender by race interaction with Black male athletes reporting stronger athletic identities compared to White male and female athletes as revealed by post-hoc analyses. Second, I examined the relationship between athletic identity and psychological distress and found that when social support and self-compassion are both low, there is a moderate, positive relationship between athletic identity and psychological distress for the White female athletes. Additionally, there were main effects for self-compassion and social support where higher levels were related to lower psychological distress among the White female athletes and Latino/a athletes. For the Black male athletes, there was a main effect for only self-compassion. There was a significant self-compassion by social support interaction for the Black female athletes and White male athletes, suggesting that when self-compassion is low, or high, there are higher levels of psychological distress experienced when social support is low. Implications of the findings, limitations, and future directions are discussed.