Interpersonal and Structural Features of Greek Coach–Athlete Dyads Performing in Individual Sports

The purpose of the present study was two-fold. Firstly, a new interpersonal construct, namely, Co-orientation was proposed to be included in the recently developed Closeness, Commitment, and Complementarity (3 Cs) conceptual model of the coach–athlete relationship (Jowett & Cockerill, 2002 Jowett, S. and Cockerill, I. M. 2002. “Incompatibility in the coach–athlete relationship”. In Solutions in sport psychology, Edited by: Cockerill, I. M. 16–31. London: Thomson Learning. [Google Scholar]). Secondly, the factorial construct validity of the Greek Coach–Athlete Relationship Questionnaire (GrCART-Q; Jowett & Ntoumanis, 2003 Jowett, S. 2003. When the honeymoon is over: A case study of a coach–athlete relationship in crisis. The Sport Psychologist., 17: 444–460. [CSA][Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), an instrument developed to measure coaches and athletes' direct perspective of the 3 Cs, and its modified version was assessed. The modified GrCART-Q was developed to measure the 3 Cs from a meta-perspective (e.g., athletes' perceptions of their coaches' closeness). The GrCART-Q and its modified version were administered to 280 participants (140 coaches and 140 athletes) from individual sports. Separate confirmatory factor analyses were conducted for the GrCART-Q and its modified version, as well as for coaches and athletes. Results revealed that both versions possess satisfactory factorial validity and reliability as a measure of the coach–athlete relationship construct for athletes and coaches of individual sports. In light of these results, conceptual, empirical and practical issues are discussed.