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The Effect Of Coach Expectations On Female Athletes' Motivation To Play, Megan Matthews Buning

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This concurrent, embedded mixed methods study used predominantly quantitative analyses to examine coach expectations and behaviors on female athletes' intrinsic motivation to play softball. Qualitative methods in the form of structured, open-ended questions were used to enhance the data by examining athletes' perceptions of coaching behavior and changes in motivation and competence levels. A cluster sampling technique was used to randomly select 20 Division I softball teams competing in the United States. The resulting quantitative participant sample included 174 female collegiate athletes ranging in age from 18-22 years old, and 20 male and female head coach participants ranging in age …