Ronald E. Smith and Frank L.

Smoll

Psychological Interventions
in Youth Sports 16
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A
thletic competition for children is a firmly established part
of American society. In the United States, it is estimated that
about 60.3 million youngsters 6 to 18 years of age participate
in agency-sponsored youth sports, such as Little League Base-
ball, the American Youth Soccer Organization, and the Boys
and Girls Clubs (National Council of Youth Sports, 2008).
Additionally, about 7.5 million youth (4.4 million boys,
3.1 million girls) participate in high school sports (National
Federation of State High School Associations, 2010). Nearly
70% of Canadian youth participate in organized sport at least
occasionally during the school year (Canadian Heritage, 2003).
A similar participation level exists in Australia (­Australian
Bureau of Statistics, 2007).

Preparation of this chapter and much of the research reported herein

was supported by Grant 1529 from the William T. Grant Foundation. The
research program was also supported by Grant RO1 MH24248 from the
National Institute of Mental Health.
Correspondence concerning this chapter should be addressed to Ronald
E. Smith, Department of Psychology, Box 351525, University of Washing-
ton, Seattle, WA 98195-1525. E-mail: resmith@uw.edu
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/14251-016
Exploring Sport and Exercise Psychology, Third Edition, J. Van Raalte
and B. Brewer (Editors)
Copyright © 2014 by the American Psychological Association. All rights
reserved.

353
 354 S mith and smoll

Sport scientists as well as popular writers have noted that the sport
environment provides socialization opportunities and places adaptive
demands on participants that parallel those of other important life set-
tings (Martens, 1978; Smoll & Smith, 2002). For these reasons, organized
athletic experiences are regarded as potentially important in child and
adolescent development. Those who favor youth sports emphasize that
many aspects of the experience contribute to personal development. Pro-
ponents generally view youth sports as miniature life situations in which
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participants can learn to cope with several of the important realities of

life. Within sport, youngsters can compete and cooperate with others,
they can learn risk taking and self-control, and they can deal with success
and failure. Important attitudes are formed about achievement, author-
ity, moral standards, and persistence in the face of adversity (M. R. Weiss,
2003). In addition, advocates point out, lifelong patterns of physical activ-
ity that promote health and fitness can be initiated through involvement
in youth sports. On the positive side, sport participation is associated with
a host of desirable physical and psychological effects in children and ado-
lescents, including cardiovascular health, respiratory health, bone health,
reduced weight gain, positive mental health, a sense of mastery, and a
positive body image. Organized sport involvement also appears to serve
as a protective factor against obesity, eating disorders, teen pregnancy,
depression, and suicide (for a review, see Rosewater, 2010).
Despite the salutary effects of sport participation, concerns have been
expressed about excessive physical and psychological demands placed
on young people and that some sport programs exist primarily for the
self-serving needs of coaches and parents. Annual dropout rates (defined
as total withdrawal from sport participation) of 30% to 40% have been
found (e.g., Barnett, Smoll, & Smith, 1992; Gould, 1987). By age 13,
more than two thirds of participants have left sport programs (Ewing
& Seefeldt, 1996), many young athletes claiming that adult-produced
pressures have taken away the fun of participating. Critics also point to
findings indicating that a “win at all costs” mentality and the sanctioning
of aggressive behavior may have negative consequences on moral devel-
opment (Bredemeier, 2003). Researchers have found that child and ado-
lescent athletes sometimes exhibit lower levels of moral reasoning than
do nonathletes and show greater acceptance of cheating and aggression
as legitimate. Such findings challenge the dictum that “sports build char-
acter,” and many critics have suggested that children and youth would
benefit far more if adults simply left them alone to participate in their
own games and activities.
A realistic appraisal of youth sports indicates that participation does
not automatically result in either beneficial or detrimental effects for all
children (Fredricks & Eccles, 2006). We believe that the sport environ-
ment affords a strong potential for achieving desirable objectives. The
question is not whether youth sports should continue to exist, for they
 Psychological Interventions in Youth Sports 355

are here to stay. The real issue is how the programs can be effectively
structured and conducted in ways that ensure attainment of positive out-
comes. In this chapter, we focus on methods developed by sport psychol-
ogists to influence the effects of sport participation in a positive direction
through interventions directed at coaches, parents, and athletes.

The Athletic Triangle:

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Coaches, Parents, and Athletes

The coach–parent–athlete triad has been referred to as the athletic tri-

angle (Smith, Smoll, & Smith, 1989). The members of this social system
interact with one another in complex ways, and the nature of those
interactions can have significant consequences for the psychological
development of the child (Davis & Jowett, 2010; M. R. Weiss, 2003).
The coach–athlete relationship influences the child during important
developmental periods, and the nature of the interpersonal transactions
between coach and athlete have been shown to affect such variables as
enjoyment of the activity, attraction toward coach and teammates, self-
esteem, performance anxiety, team cohesion, and sport attrition (Fisher,
Mancini, Hirsch, Proulx, & Staurowsky, 1982; Smith & Smoll, 2011;
Westre & Weiss, 1991).
Parental influences on children’s socialization into sport and on
psychosocial consequences once involved have also been documented
(Brustad, 2003; Greendorfer, Lewko, & Rosengren, 2002). Although
there is a paucity of research on observed parental behaviors and their
consequences, the negative impact they can have on child athletes is
all too obvious. Parental misbehavior at competitive events has become
such a problem that in some programs parents are barred from attend-
ing games. Other programs have resorted to playing games during the
morning or afternoon so that parents cannot easily attend. If the quality
of supervision is a critical issue in youth sports, so also is the manner
in which some misguided parents can undermine the laudable goals of
youth sports and thereby detract from the benefits that athletic experi-
ences should provide for children. Assisting parents in ensuring that
sports will be a positive influence on their relationship with their child
is a worthy target for sport psychology intervention.
The young athlete is a third point of intervention in the athletic
triangle. Psychology has developed an impressive and effective arsenal
of techniques to enhance human performance and well-being. The fact
that children engage in youth sports during a formative period of their
lives provides a window of opportunity for sport psychology interven-
tions designed to foster the personal development of the athlete and
 356 S mith and smoll

to facilitate the development of life skills that generalize from sports to

other areas of life.
In the sections to follow, we provide practical guidelines for the
practitioner who wishes to work in the area of youth sports. It will
become readily apparent that some promising and empirically validated
intervention strategies already exist but also that there is great oppor-
tunity for research and innovative approaches to enhancing the youth
sport environment.
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Coach-Based Interventions

Most athletes have their first sport experiences in programs staffed

by volunteer coaches. Although many of these coaches are fairly well
versed in the technical aspects of the sport, they rarely have had any
formal training in creating a healthy psychological environment for
youngsters. Moreover, through the mass media, these coaches are fre-
quently exposed to college or professional coaches who model aggres-
sive behaviors and a winning-is-everything philosophy that is highly
inappropriate in a recreational and skill development context. Because
the vast majority of youth coaches have desirable motives for coach-
ing (Martens & Gould, 1979; Smith, Smoll, & Curtis, 1978), one can
assume that their limitations result primarily from a lack of information
on how to create a supportive interpersonal climate. Several educational
programs have therefore been developed for the purpose of positively
affecting coaching practices and thereby increasing the likelihood that
youngsters will have positive sport experiences.
Five of the most prominent training programs currently available in
the United States include curricular components designed to influence
the manner in which coaches interact with young athletes: the A ­ merican
Sport Education Program (http://www.asep.com), the Mastery Approach
to Coaching (MAC; http://www.y-e-sports.com), the National Youth
Sports Coaches Association program (http://www.nays.org), a program
offered by the Positive Coaching Alliance (http://www.positivecoach.
org), and the Program for Athletic Coaches’ Education (http://www.edu.
msu.edu/ysi/). The national coaching associations of Australia (http://
www.athletics.com.au) and Canada (http://www.coach.ca) have also
developed formal programs that provide training in sport psychology as
well as other areas, such as sport pedagogy (teaching sport skills and
strategies), sport physiology (conditioning, weight training, and nutri-
tion), and sports medicine (injury prevention, care, and rehabilitation).
Of the widely used programs, however, the MAC is the only one that
has been subjected to systematic evaluation to determine its influence
 Psychological Interventions in Youth Sports 357

on coaches’ behaviors and the effects of such behaviors on youngsters’

psychosocial development. We therefore describe the coach training
program, developed over more than 30 years within our Youth Enrich-
ment in Sports project (see http://www.Y-E-Sports.com), as an illustra-
tion of an empirical approach to the development and evaluation of
intervention strategies in the youth sport arena.
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Developing a Coach Training Program

Our work was guided by a fundamental assumption that a training pro-
gram should be based on scientific evidence rather than on intuition and/
or what we “know” on the basis of informal observation. An empirical
foundation for coaching guidelines not only enhances the validity and
potential value of the program but also increases its credibility in the eyes
of consumers. We now describe our approach to generating an empirical
database for our training program.

Theoretical Model and Research Paradigm

Recognition of the potential impact of youth coaches on athletes’ psy-
chological welfare prompted several scientific questions that we felt
were worth pursuing. For example, what do coaches do, and how fre-
quently do they engage in such behaviors as encouragement, punish-
ment, instruction, and organization? How are such behaviors related to
children’s reactions to their organized athletic experiences? Answers to
such questions provide not only a first step in describing the behavioral
ecology of one aspect of the youth sport setting but also an empirical basis
for the development of psychologically oriented intervention programs.
To begin to answer such questions, we carried out a systematic pro-
gram of basic research over a period of several years. The project was
guided by a mediational model of coach–athlete interactions, the basic
elements of which are represented as follows:
Coach Behaviors → Athlete Perception and Recall → Athletes’ Evaluative
Reactions
This model stipulates that the ultimate effects of coaching behaviors
are mediated by the meaning that athletes attribute to them. In other
words, what athletes remember about their coach’s behaviors and how
they interpret these actions affect the way that athletes evaluate their
sport experiences. Furthermore, a complex of cognitive and affective
processes is involved at this mediational level. Athletes’ perceptions
and reactions are likely to be affected not only by coaches’ behaviors
but also by other factors, such as athletes’ age; what they expect of
coaches (normative beliefs and expectations); and certain personality
 358 S mith and smoll

variables, such as self-esteem and anxiety. In recognition of this, the

basic three-element model has been expanded to reflect these factors
(Smoll & Smith, 1989). The expanded model specifies a number of situ-
ational factors as well as coach and athlete characteristics that could
influence coach behaviors and the perceptions and reactions of ath-
letes to them. Using this model as a starting point, we have sought to
determine how observed coaching behaviors, athletes’ perception and
recall of the coach’s behaviors, and athletes’ attitudes are related to one
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another. We have also explored the manner in which athlete and coach
characteristics might serve to affect these relations.

Measurement of Coaching Behaviors

To measure leadership behaviors, we developed the Coaching Behavior
Assessment System (CBAS) to permit the direct observation and coding
of coaches’ actions during practices and games (Smith, Smoll, & Hunt,
1977). The CBAS contains 12 categories divided into two major classes of
behaviors. Reactive (elicited) behaviors are responses to immediately pre-
ceding athlete or team behaviors, whereas spontaneous (emitted) behaviors
are initiated by the coach and are not a response to a discernible preceding
event. Reactive behaviors are responses to either desirable performance or
effort (reinforcement, nonreinforcement), mistakes and errors (mistake-
contingent encouragement, mistake-contingent technical instruction,
punishment, punitive technical instruction, ignoring mistakes), or misbe-
haviors on the part of athletes (keeping control). The spontaneous class
includes general technical instruction, general encouragement, organiza-
tion, and general communication. The system thus involves basic interac-
tions between the situation and the coach’s behavior. Use of the CBAS in
observing and coding coaching behaviors in a variety of sports indicates
that the scoring system is sufficiently comprehensive to incorporate the
vast majority of overt leader behaviors, that high interrater reliability can
be obtained, and that individual differences in behavioral patterns can be
discerned (Smith, Smoll, & Christensen, 1996).

Coaching Behaviors and Children’s Evaluative Reactions

Following development of the CBAS, a field study was conducted to estab-
lish relations between coaching behaviors and several athlete variables
specified in the conceptual model (Smith et al., 1978). Observed behav-
iors of 51 baseball coaches during 202 complete games were coded, and
542 children who played for the coaches were interviewed and adminis-
tered questionnaires after the season ended.
At the level of overt behavior, three independent behavioral dimen-
sions were identified through factor analysis: supportiveness (consisting
of reinforcement and mistake-contingent encouragement), instructive-
 Psychological Interventions in Youth Sports 359

ness (general technical instruction and mistake-contingent technical

instruction vs. general communication and general encouragement),
and punitiveness (punishment and punitive technical instruction vs.
organizational behaviors). Relations between coaches’ scores on these
behavioral dimensions and player measures indicated that players
responded most favorably to coaches who engaged in higher rates and
percentages of supportive and instructional behaviors. Players on teams
whose coaches created a supportive environment also liked their team-
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mates more. A somewhat surprising finding was that the team’s won–
lost record was essentially unrelated to how well the players liked the
coach and how much they wanted to play for the coach in the future.
It is worth noting, however, that winning assumed greater importance
beyond age 12, although it continued to be a less important attitudinal
determinant than coach behaviors.
Another important issue concerns the degree of accuracy with which
coaches perceive their own behaviors. Correlations between CBAS-
observed behaviors and coaches’ ratings of how frequently they per-
formed the behaviors were generally low and nonsignificant. The only
significant correlation occurred for punishment. Children’s ratings
on the same perceived behavior scales correlated much more highly
with CBAS measures than did the coaches’ ratings. It thus appears that
coaches have limited awareness of how frequently they engage in par-
ticular forms of behavior and that athletes are more accurate perceivers
of actual coach behaviors.
Finally, analysis of the children’s attraction responses toward the
coaches revealed a significant interaction between coach supportive-
ness (the tendency to reinforce desirable performance and effort and
to respond to mistakes with encouragement) and athletes’ level of self-
esteem (Smith & Smoll, 1990). Specifically, the low-self-esteem children
were especially responsive to variations in supportiveness in a manner
consistent with a self-enhancement model of self-esteem. This finding is
consistent with the results of other studies which, collectively, suggest that
self-enhancement motivation causes people who are low in self-esteem
to be especially responsive to variations in supportiveness because of their
greater need for positive feedback from others (Tesser, 1988).

From Basic Research to Intervention

The research results provided clear directions for the development of spe-
cific behavioral guidelines for a training program. The program developed
in the late 1970s was called Coach Effectiveness Training. For reasons
described in this section, the program was recently renamed Mastery
Approach to Coaching.
From its inception, both our basic research and the intervention
program have been guided primarily by social cognitive theory, a
 360 S mith and smoll

cognitive–behavioral approach to understanding the role of situational,

psychological, and environmental factors in behavior (Mischel, 1973;
Smith, 2006). More recently, we have incorporated another cognitive–
behavioral theory, achievement goal theory (Duda, 2005), into our
research and intervention program. Achievement goal theory has
had a major influence on sport psychology over the past two decades.
Achievement goal theory focuses on understanding the function and
the meaning of goal-directed actions on the basis of how participants
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define success and how they judge whether they have demonstrated
competence. The two central constructs in the theory are individual
goal orientations that guide achievement perceptions and behavior and
the motivational climate created within adult-controlled achievement
settings. In a mastery motivational climate, success is defined in terms
of giving maximum effort, enjoyment of the activity, and personal
improvement. Mistakes are viewed as opportunities to improve perfor-
mance and are not punished. An ego-oriented climate defines success
in social comparison terms, emphasizing outperforming others, win-
ning. Those who perform best get special attention. Poor performance
elicits criticism and punishment.
A large body of research indicates that in sports, as in other achieve-
ment settings, mastery achievement goals and a mastery-oriented
motivational climate are associated with salutary effects on athletes.
Although mastery and ego orientations are not mutually exclusive,
compared with primarily ego-oriented students and athletes, those high
in mastery orientation report higher feelings of competence, greater
enjoyment of the activity, and higher intrinsic motivation and effort.
A mastery orientation (particularly in combination with a low ego ori-
entation) is also related to lower levels of cognitive trait anxiety and
preevent state anxiety. Finally, a mastery goal orientation is related to a
variety of adaptive achievement behaviors, such as exerting consistent
effort, persistence in the face of setbacks, and sustained and improved
performance. Although an ego orientation has at times been linked to
high levels of achievement, it also has a number of less desirable cor-
relates, such as inconsistent effort, higher levels of performance anxi-
ety, reduced persistence or withdrawal in the face of failure, decreased
intrinsic motivation for sport involvement, and a willingness to use
deception and illegal methods to win (Duda, 2005; McArdle & Duda,
2002; Roberts, Treasure, & Conroy, 2007).
A mastery motivational climate counters the win-at-all-costs phi-
losophy that is all too common in youth sports. In such a climate, stu-
dents and athletes tend to adopt adaptive achievement strategies such
as selecting challenging tasks, giving maximum effort, persisting in the
face of setbacks, and taking pride in personal improvement (McArdle
& Duda, 2002). In youth sports, a mastery climate relates far more
 Psychological Interventions in Youth Sports 361

strongly to athletes’ liking of their coach than does the team’s won–lost
record (Cumming, Smoll, Smith, & Grossbard, 2007). Coach-initiated
mastery climate is positively related to increases in mastery goal ori-
entation and decreases in ego orientation (Smith, Smoll, & Cumming,
2009). In contrast, an ego-involving climate promotes social compari-
son as a basis for success judgments. When coaches create an ego cli-
mate, they tend to give differential attention and positive reinforcement
to athletes who are most competent and instrumental to winning, and
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skill development is deemed more important to winning than to per-

sonal improvement and self-realization. They are also more likely to
respond to mistakes and poor performance with punitive responses,
behaviors associated with athletes’ increases in ego goal orientation
(Smith, Smoll, & Cumming, 2009). Several studies conducted in physi-
cal education classes have shown that motivational climate is a stron-
ger predictor of such outcomes as intrinsic motivation and voluntary
activity participation than is students’ achievement goal orientation
(­Roberts et al., 2007).
In recent years, the Coach Effectiveness Training program, which
from its inception presented guidelines consistent with a mastery cli-
mate, has incorporated achievement goal concepts in an explicit fash-
ion, with the stated goal of helping coaches develop a mastery climate.
The Coach Effectiveness Training program was renamed Mastery
Approach to Coaching to highlight this emphasis.

Behavioral Guidelines in the Mastery Approach to Coaching

A set of five core principles underlies the behavioral coaching guide-
lines communicated in the MAC program (Smoll & Smith, 2010). A
most important first principle, consistent with a mastery climate, is that
winning is defined not in terms of won–lost records but in terms of
giving maximum effort and making improvements. The explicit and
primary focus is on having fun, deriving satisfaction from being on the
team, learning sport skills, and developing increased self-esteem. This
philosophy is designed to maximize young athletes’ enjoyment of sport
and their chances of deriving the benefits of participation, partly as
a result of combating competitive anxiety. The focus on controllable
effort rather than uncontrollable outcome also promotes separation
of the athlete’s feelings of self-worth from the game outcome, which
serves to help overcome fear of failure.
Our second principle, derived from social-cognitive learning the-
ory, emphasizes a positive approach to coaching. In such an approach,
coach–athlete interactions are characterized by the liberal use of posi-
tive reinforcement, encouragement, and sound technical instruction that
help create high levels of interpersonal attraction between coaches and
 362 S mith and smoll

a­ thletes. Punitive behaviors are strongly discouraged because they have

been shown to create a negative team climate and to promote fear of
failure. We emphasize that reinforcement should not be restricted to the
learning and performance of sport skills. Rather, it should also be liberally
applied to strengthen desirable psychosocial behaviors (e.g., teamwork,
leadership, sportsmanship). Coaches are urged to reinforce effort as
much as they do results. This guideline has direct relevance to developing
a healthy philosophy of winning and a reduction in performance anxiety.
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The MAC includes several positive approach guidelines pertaining

to the appropriate use of technical instruction. For example, when giv-
ing instruction, we encourage coaches to emphasize the good things
that will happen if athletes execute correctly rather than focusing on
the negative things that will occur if they do not. This approach moti-
vates athletes to make desirable things happen (i.e., develop a positive
achievement orientation) rather than building fear of making mistakes.
The third coaching principle is to establish norms that emphasize
athletes’ mutual obligations to help and support one another. Such norms
increase social support and attraction among teammates and thereby
enhance cohesion and commitment to the team. Such norms are most
likely to develop when coaches (a) model supportive behaviors and
(b) reinforce athletes’ behaviors that promote team unity. We also
instruct coaches in how to develop a we’re-in-this-together group norm.
This norm can play an important role in building team cohesion among
teammates, particularly if the coach frequently reinforces relevant
bench behaviors of attention and mutual supportiveness.
A fourth principle is that compliance with team roles and respon-
sibilities is most effectively achieved by involving athletes in decisions
regarding team rules and reinforcing compliance with them rather than
by using punitive measures to punish noncompliance. We believe that
coaches should recognize that youngsters want clearly defined limits
and structure.
The positive approach also applies to promoting compliance with team
rules. One of the most effective ways of eliminating negative behaviors
(and avoiding the negative side effects of punishment) is to strengthen
incompatible positive behaviors. Thus, coaches are encouraged not to
take rule compliance for granted but to acknowledge instances of compli-
ance with the rules. By using positive reinforcement to strengthen desir-
able behaviors, coaches can often avoid having to deal with misbehaviors
on the part of athletes.
Finally, MAC coaches are urged to obtain behavioral feedback and
to engage in self-monitoring to increase awareness of their own behav-
iors and to encourage compliance with the positive approach guide-
lines. This is based on our finding that coaches have limited awareness
of their own behavior patterns.
 Psychological Interventions in Youth Sports 363

Training Procedures
In a MAC workshop, which lasts approximately 75 minutes, behavioral
guidelines are presented both verbally and in a manual given to the
coaches (Smoll & Smith, 2008). The written material supplements the
guidelines with concrete suggestions for communicating effectively with
young athletes, gaining their respect, and relating effectively to their par-
ents. The importance of sensitivity and being responsive to individual dif-
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ferences among athletes is also stressed. The manual serves to (a) help
keep the workshop organized, (b) facilitate coaches’ understanding of
the information, (c) eliminate the need for coaches to take notes, and
(d) give coaches a tangible resource to refer to in the future. Also, animated
PowerPoint content slides and cartoons illustrating important points are
used to facilitate ease of comprehension and retention as well as to add to
the organizational quality of the session. A detailed outline of the MAC
intervention together with video segments from a workshop can be found
on the Youth Enrichment in Sports website (http://www.y-e-sports.com).
The MAC also includes discussion of coach–parent relationships
and provides instructions for organizing and conducting a sport orienta-
tion meeting with parents. Some purposes of the meeting are to inform
parents about their responsibilities for contributing to the success of the
sport program and to guide them toward working cooperatively with
the coach (see Smith & Smoll, 2002).

Program Evaluation: Assessing the Efficacy

of the Mastery Approach to Coaching
Sweeping conclusions are often drawn about the efficacy of intervention
programs in the absence of anything approximating acceptable scien-
tific evidence. Scientific accountability requires evidence that interven-
tions produce the effects they are intended to produce (Luiselli & Reed,
2011; McHugh & Barlow, 2010). We therefore felt it was important not
only to develop an empirical foundation for our intervention but also
to measure its effects on coaches and the youngsters who play for them.
We have focused on six important outcome questions in our pro-
gram evaluation studies. First, does the training program affect the
behaviors of the trained coaches in a manner consistent with the
behavioral guidelines? Second, the program is designed to help coaches
create a mastery-oriented environment that would be expected to
increase children’s positive reactions to coach, teammates, and their
sport experience. How does the program affect children’s reactions to
their athletic experience? Third, does exposure to a positive interper-
sonal environment created by trained coaches result in an increase
in general self-esteem, particularly among low-self-esteem children?
 364 S mith and smoll

Fourth, does coach training help reduce performance anxiety among

young athletes? Fifth, does the mastery climate recommended in the
program change children’s achievement goal orientations? Do children
become more mastery oriented in their definitions of achievement?
And, finally, do positive changes in the first five outcomes increase the
likelihood that young athletes will choose to return to the sport pro-
gram? This last question is one of great practical importance because, as
noted earlier, nearly 70% of children drop out of sports by age 13, and
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nonparticipation is associated with a host of negative consequences,

including obesity, delinquency, and teen pregnancy (Brustad & Parker,
2005; Rosewater, 2010). Clearly, one goal should be to keep youngsters
engaged in physical activity as they enter the adolescent years.
Positive findings regarding all six of these questions have been
established in a series of outcome studies in which experimental groups
of youth baseball and basketball coaches exposed to the training pro-
gram were compared with untreated, control groups of coaches (Smith
& Smoll, 2011). Trained coaches differed in both observed behaviors and
in athlete-perceived behaviors in a manner consistent with the behav-
ioral guidelines. Experimental group coaches were more reinforcing and
encouraging, gave more technical instruction, and were less punitive
and controlling than control group coaches. In turn, athletes who played
for the trained coaches perceived their teams’ motivational climate to
be more mastery oriented, became more mastery oriented in their sport
and academic achievement goals, enjoyed their experiences more, and
liked their coach and teammates more. They also demonstrated signifi-
cant increases in general self-esteem and significant decreases in perfor-
mance anxiety over the course of the season (Smith, Smoll, & Barnett,
1995; Smith, Smoll, & Curtis, 1979; Smoll, Smith, Barnett, & Everett,
1993; Smoll, Smith, & Cumming, 2007b).
Finally, a study of attrition showed a dropout rate of 26% among
children who played for control group coaches, a figure that is quite con-
sistent with previous reports of attrition in youth sport programs (Gould,
1987). In contrast, only 5% of the children who had played for trained
coaches failed to return to the program the next season (Barnett et al.,
1992). These positive psychosocial outcomes are all the more noteworthy
in light of the fact that experimental and control groups did not differ in
average won–lost percentages in any of the studies.
The MAC program was initially presented only in live workshops.
However, to expand program reach, developers sought other means of
dissemination (McHugh & Barlow, 2010). Sousa, Smith, and Cruz (2008)
found that MAC behavioral guidelines could be successfully taught
through DVD presentation. The MAC workshop has now been trans-
formed into a 66-minute DVD with an accompanying written manual
(Smoll & Smith, 2009a). However, the effects of this version of the MAC
intervention have yet to be determined.
 Psychological Interventions in Youth Sports 365

Related Theoretical Developments

In recent years there has been a surge of interest in coach–athlete rela-
tionships. Two noteworthy theoretical developments seem particularly
relevant to the MAC as well as to other coach training programs. One is
Fry and Gano-Overway’s (2010) concept of the caring climate in which
coaches create a setting in which athletes feel welcomed, safe, protected,
valued, and respected. Their prescription for creating such an environ-
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ment involves the use of positive reinforcement, encouragement, and

creation of a mastery motivational climate that encourages intrinsic
enjoyment of the activity. These prescriptions are highly consistent
with MAC principles and behavioral guidelines. Fry and Gano-Overway
have provided a measure of caring climate and have shown that such
a setting is related to athletes’ enjoyment of the coach, teammates, and
the sport experience and to more caring behaviors toward their coaches
and teammates. A summer camp intervention demonstrated that camp
counselors can be trained to provide a caring environment and that this
has positive effects on camp goers (Newton et al., 2007).
In a somewhat related development, Jowett (2007) applied con-
cepts from attachment theory to the coach–athlete dyadic relationship.
Three types of psychological attachment can exist within this frame-
work: secure attachment in which athletes feel safe and cared for by
a coach who will be responsive to any needs for assistance, anxious
attachment in which athletes want the coach’s support but worry about
the coach’s responsiveness in times of need, and avoidant attachment in
which athletes experience discomfort with closeness and try to achieve
independence from the coach. The latter two attachment forms are
called insecure attachments. In a study of young adult athletes, Davis
and Jowett (2010) showed that secure attachment to the coach is
related to sport satisfaction, which is largely mediated by relationship
satisfaction. Anxious and avoidant attachment are negatively related to
relationship and sport satisfaction. We would expect these findings to
apply to child athletes as well.
The goals of the MAC program are clearly consistent with creating
a caring environment for young athletes and fostering secure attach-
ment relationships between young athletes and their coaches because
a mastery climate fosters both outcomes (Carr, 2009). However, the
attachment and caring environment measures have yet to be used in
outcome studies of the MAC intervention. In a more general sense,
the melding of concepts, methods, and measures from diverse theo-
retical models is emphasized in the translational approach that is being
promoted heavily within contemporary psychological and medical sci-
ence (Smith & Smoll, 2011; Tashiro & Mortensen, 2006), and such an
approach can only enrich the knowledge base and the intervention
methods inspired by it.
 366 S mith and smoll

Parent-Based Interventions

Mass media reports abound concerning parental influences that can

potentially undermine the best-intentioned youth sport program. We
hear on an increasingly frequent basis about sport parents engaging in
objectionable and, at times, criminally violent actions toward coaches,
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young athletes, and sport officials. Consider the following examples

(Smoll & Smith, 2005):
❚❚ In Massachusetts, a coach died after he was beaten unconscious
following a hockey practice by a father who was upset about
rough play in a scrimmage. The assailant was convicted of invol-
untary manslaughter.
❚❚ At a Philadelphia-area youth football game, a player’s father bran-
dished a .357 magnum during a dispute with a coach over his son’s
playing time.
❚❚ A Long Island, New York, soccer mom angered over being dropped
from the team e-mail list for game-day directions was arrested
after slamming a metal folding chair across the face of her daugh-
ter’s coach. The woman was charged with second-degree reckless
endangerment.
Fortunately, such incidents are not the norm. Yet, in their own dra-
matic fashion they illustrate pervasive problems that have caused some
programs to take steps to protect the welfare of youth sport participants,
coaches, and officials. The importance of parents in the youth sport
experience cannot be overemphasized. Research has shown that par-
ents play an important role in the socialization of children into sports
and influence the psychosocial outcomes of sport experiences, including
self-concept development and enjoyment of the activity (Brustad, 2003;
Brustad & Parker, 2005). Thus, a potentially influential focus of interven-
tions is on parents.
Several books have been written for the youth sport parent (e.g.,
Smoll & Smith, 2005; Thompson, 2008). Workshops for parents similar
to those developed for coaches can be another vehicle for reaching par-
ents and influencing the ways in which they interact with their child
athletes. In the MAC, we provide coaches with guidelines for conduct-
ing an educational session with the parents of the athletes they are
coaching (Smith & Smoll, 2002).

Mastery Approach to Parenting in Sports

More recently, we developed a Mastery Approach to Parenting in Sports
(MAPS) intervention designed to parallel the MAC intervention and help
 Psychological Interventions in Youth Sports 367

parents create a mastery-oriented motivational climate for their children

(Smoll & Smith, 2009b). Ideally used in combination with the MAC, the
MAPS is designed to get coaches and parents “on the same page” and
working cooperatively to create a growth-inducing sport environment.
We now summarize some of the topics addressed in this intervention.

Objectives of Youth Sports

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As noted previously, there are many possible benefits of participating in

youth sports. Some of them are physical, such as acquiring sport skills and
increasing health and fitness. Others are psychological, such as develop-
ing leadership skills, self-discipline, respect for authority, competitive-
ness, cooperativeness, sportsmanship, and self-confidence. Youth sports
are also an important social activity in which children can make new
friends and acquaintances and become part of an ever-expanding social
network. Furthermore, the involvement of parents in the athletic enter-
prise can serve to bring families closer together and strengthen family
unity. Finally, of course, youth sports are (or should be) just plain fun!
The basic right of the young athlete to have fun in participating
should not be neglected. One of the quickest ways to reduce fun is for
adults to begin treating children as if they were professional athletes.
Coaches and parents alike need to keep in mind that young athletes are
not miniature adults. They are children, and they have the right to play as
children. Youth sports are first and foremost a play activity, and young-
sters deserve to enjoy sports in their own way. In essence, it is important
that programs remain child centered and do not become adult dominated.
What about winning? The common notion in sports equates suc-
cess with victory. However, with a winning-is-everything philosophy,
young athletes may lose opportunities to develop their skills, to enjoy
participation, and to grow socially and emotionally. Well-informed par-
ents realize that success is not equivalent to winning games, and failure
is not the same as losing. Rather, the most important kind of success
comes from striving to win and giving maximum effort. The only thing
athletes can control is the amount of effort they give. They have incom-
plete control over the outcome that is achieved. Athletes at all levels of
competition should be taught that they are never “losers” if they give
maximum effort in striving for excellence. This philosophy of success is
relevant to parents as well as coaches. In fact, it may be more important
for parents to understand its meaning. They can apply it to many areas
of their child’s life in addition to sport.
We believe that most of the negative consequences of youth sports
occur when adults erroneously impose a professional win-at-all-costs
model on what should be a recreational and educational experience for
youngsters. When excessive emphasis is placed on winning, it is easy
 368 S mith and smoll

to lose sight of the needs and interests of the young athlete. Indeed,
when young athletes are asked what they want out of their youth sport
experience, the developmental model comes out ahead. A survey of
more than 100,000 youth sport participants in the state of Michigan
indicated that young athletes most often participated in sports for the
following reasons: (a) to have fun, (b) to improve their skills and learn
new skills, (c) to be with their friends or make new friends, and (d) to
succeed or win (Universities Study Committee, 1978). In a report based
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on data derived from a national survey of approximately 8,000 boys

and girls, these same items were included in lists of the 10 most fre-
quently selected reasons why youngsters play nonschool and interscho-
lastic sports (Seefeldt, Ewing, & Walk, 1992). These goals should be
communicated to parents, and they should be cautioned that none of
these outcomes is achieved automatically through participation in sports.
Coaches, parents, and sport administrators should be part of a team trying
to accomplish common goals. By working together to reduce chances of
misunderstanding and problems, the objectives that children have can
be attained. In this regard, parents should be encouraged to view their
involvement in youth sports as an integral part of their child-rearing
responsibilities.

Parents’ Responsibilities and Challenges

When a child enters a sport program, parents automatically take on some
obligations. Some parents do not realize this at first and are surprised to
find what is expected of them. Others never realize their responsibilities
and miss opportunities to help their children grow through sports, or they
may actually do things that interfere with their children’s development.
To begin, parents must realize that children have a right to choose not
to participate. Although parents might choose to encourage participation,
children should not be pressured, intimidated, or bribed into playing.
Athletes who feel “entrapped” report less enjoyment and lower intrinsic
motivation and benefits of being involved in sports and are more likely to
drop out of sports (W. M. Weiss & Weiss, 2006). In fulfilling their respon-
sibility, parents should counsel their children, giving consideration to the
sport selected and the level of competition at which the children want
to play. And, of course, parents should respect their children’s decisions.
Parents can enjoy their children’s participation more if they acquire
an understanding and appreciation of the sport. This includes knowledge
of basic rules, skills, and strategies. Coaches can serve as valuable resources
by answering parents’ questions and by referring parents to appropriate
websites, community and school libraries, or bookstores for educational
materials (e.g., books, magazines, videos, video clips). In addition, coaches
should devote part of an early season practice to a lecture/demonstration
 Psychological Interventions in Youth Sports 369

of the fundamentals of the sport, and parents having little background in

the sport should be encouraged to attend this session.
Parents often assume an extremely active role in youth sports, and
in some instances their influence becomes an important source of chil-
dren’s stress (Brustad, 2003; Smith, Smoll, & Passer, 2002). What might
constitute the underlying basis of parent-induced stress? One factor is
what we have come to refer to as the reversed dependency phenomenon.
Some parents come to focus on youth sport to such an extent that they
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evaluate their own self-worth in terms of how successful their son or

daughter is. The father who is a “frustrated jock” may seek to experience
through his child the success he never knew as an athlete. Or the par-
ent who was a star may be resentful and rejecting if the child does not
attain similar achievements. Some parents thus become “winners” or
“losers” through their children, and the pressure placed on the children
to excel can be extreme. A child must succeed or the parent’s self-image
is threatened. Much more is at stake than a mere game, and the child of
such a parent carries a heavy burden. When parental love and approval
depend on adequacy of performance, sports are bound to be stressful.
Youth sport consultants may be able to counteract this tendency by
explaining the identification process to parents. They can tell parents
that if they place excessive pressure on children, they can decrease the
potential that sports can have for enjoyment and personal growth. Fur-
ther, children who experience high levels of stress are more likely to drop
out of sport. A key to reducing parent-produced stress is to impress on
parents that youth sport programs are for young athletes and that chil-
dren and youth are not adults. Parents and children benefit when parents
acknowledge the right of each child to develop athletic potential in an
atmosphere that emphasizes participation, personal growth, and fun.

Commitments and Affirmations

To contribute to the success of a sport program, parents must be willing
and able to commit themselves in many different ways. The following
questions serve as important reminders of the scope of parents’ responsi-
bilities, questions to which parents must honestly answer yes to each one:
  1. Can the parents share their son or daughter? This requires put-
ting the child in the coach’s charge and trusting the coach to
guide the sport experience. It involves accepting the coach’s
authority and the fact that the coach may gain some of the
admiration and affection that the child once directed solely at
the parent. This commitment does not mean that parents can-
not have input, but the coach is the boss! If parents are going
to undermine the coach’s leadership, it is best for all concerned
not to have their child join the program.
 370 S mith and smoll

  2. Can the parents accept their child’s disappointments? Every

child athlete experiences “the thrill of victory and the agony of
defeat” as part of the competition process. In addition to enjoy-
ing triumphs, parents are called on to support their children
when they are disappointed and hurt. This may mean not being
embarrassed, ashamed, or angry when their son or daughter
cries after losing a contest. When an apparent disappointment
occurs, parents should be able to help their children learn from
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the experience. By doing this without denying the validity of

their child’s feelings, parents can help their children see the
positive side of the situation and thus change their children’s
disappointment into self-acceptance.
  3. Can the parents give their children enough time? Parents need
to decide how much time they can devote to their children’s
sport activities. Conflicts arise when they are very busy yet are
also interested and want to encourage their children. The best
advice to give parents is to deal honestly with the time commit-
ment issue and not to promise more time than they can actually
deliver. Parents should ask their children about their sport expe-
riences and make every effort to watch some of their games.

Conduct at Sport Events

The most noticeable parent problem is misbehavior at games. As part
of their responsibilities, parents should watch their children compete
in sports. But their behavior must meet acceptable standards. In addi-
tion to acknowledging some obviously inappropriate actions (e.g., using
profanity, drinking alcohol, throwing objects), the following rules for
parental behavior (dos and don’ts) have been recommended:
  1. Do remain in the spectator area during the event.
  2. Don’t interfere with the coach. Parents must be willing to relin-
quish the responsibility for their child to the coach for the dura-
tion of the practice or game.
  3. Do express interest, encouragement, and support to your child.
Be sure to cheer good effort as well as good performance. Com-
municate repeatedly that giving total effort is all you expect.
  4. Don’t shout instructions or criticisms to the children.
  5. Do lend a hand when a coach or official asks for help.
  6. Don’t make abusive comments to athletes, parents, officials, or
coaches of either team.
Good sportsmanship among spectators is a goal worth working
for. Parents have the obligation not only to control their own behav-
ior but also to remind others if necessary. When parents misbehave,
 Psychological Interventions in Youth Sports 371

it is the duty of other parents and league administrators to step in

and correct the situation. The rule of thumb for all spectators is that
nothing in their actions should interfere with any child’s enjoyment
of the sport.

Program Evaluation
Compared with the MAC, evaluation research on the MAPS is in its
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infancy, and its efficacy remains to be demonstrated empirically. A

study in which the MAC and MAPS were applied within the same sport
program demonstrated a significant decrease in athletes’ performance
anxiety over the course of the season, but we were unable to establish
the relative effects of the two interventions (Smoll, Smith, & Cumming,
2007a). To encourage research and to facilitate dissemination, the MAPS,
like the MAC, has been converted to a self-instructional DVD format
(Smoll & Smith, 2009b), and an outline of topics and video clips is avail-
able for viewing on the Youth Enrichment in Sports website (http://
www.y-e-sports.com).

Athlete-Based Interventions

The third point in the athletic triangle is the young athlete. Some of the
intervention programs directed at the athlete involve the application
of psychological principles to enhance sport performance. Others are
directed at psychosocial outcomes.

Performance Enhancement Interventions

Notable among the performance enhancement interventions is behav-
ioral coaching (Martin & Hyrcaiko, 1983; Stokes & Luiselli, 2010), which
involves teaching coaches to apply operant techniques, such as func-
tional analysis and behavioral assessment of skill components, vid-
eotaped feedback, response-contingent reinforcement of response
execution, the use of shaping procedures, self-monitoring and behav-
ioral graphing of the skill acquisition process, and the systematic appli-
cation of modeling procedures. More than a dozen studies have shown
that operant techniques can be highly effective in facilitating skill acqui-
sition and enhancing performance in a variety of sports and age levels
(for reviews, see Smith et al., 1996; Stokes & Luiselli, 2010). Sport con-
sultants who are conversant with the application of operant principles
will find an eager audience of coaches who wish to be trained in these
powerful performance enhancement techniques.
 372 S mith and smoll

Imagery-based performance enhancement techniques have also

been applied to child athlete populations. For example, Zhang, Ma,
Orlick, and Zitzelberger (1992) tested the efficacy of a mental imagery
program designed to increase the performance of promising Chinese
table tennis players between the ages of 7 and 10. Children in the first
condition received a comprehensive 22-week mental training program
that included relaxation, video observation, and mental imagery ses-
sions. A second treatment group received only the video observation
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component of the training. The third group was a no-treatment control

condition. Results indicated that compared with the other two groups,
the children who received the full mental training package significantly
improved both the accuracy and technical quality of their table tennis
forehand attack. In a more recent study, Copeland, Bonnell, Reider,
and Burton (2009) tested an intensive 2-week mental skills program
designed to develop relaxation-based stress management skills and
team cohesion skills with adolescent luge athletes. The program was
effective in reducing performance anxiety states prior to competition
and in increasing team cohesion.

Life Skills and Moral

Development Interventions
Another recent emphasis has been on training children in skills that
not only enhance their sport performance but also extend as life skills to
other areas of the child’s life, such as academics and social interactions.
For example, Orlick and McCaffrey (1991) described a psychological
skills program for elementary school children that includes training in
relaxation, imagery, focusing, and refocusing. The skills training was
adapted to the child’s level. For example, relaxation training was car-
ried out while comparing tense muscles to uncooked spaghetti and
relaxed muscles to limp cooked spaghetti.
One widely applied life skills program is Danish’s (2002a) Going for
the Goal program, in which young athletes are trained in specific goal-
setting procedures designed to enhance their sport performance and to
generalize to other settings. Promising results have been achieved in
enhancing such skills. Another program with a wider set of life skills is
Sports United to Promote Education and Recreation (Danish, 2002b)
was applied within The First Tee, a national youth golf program. This
program combined with a community service component had a signifi-
cant impact on athletes’ prosocial values, social responsibility, empa-
thy, and social interest (Brunelle, Danish, & Forneris, 2007). This life
skills approach carried out within the engaging sport context seems to
hold considerable promise for promoting the development of important
psychological skills. Such training could easily include generalization
 Psychological Interventions in Youth Sports 373

training to facilitate transfer of the skills to other life areas. Such train-
ing might be particularly useful in working with at-risk youth, who are
typically resistant to life skills programs implemented within the school
setting. Such youngsters might be more enthusiastic about a program
designed and conducted within the realm of sport.
The finding that athletes often exhibit lower levels of moral rea-
soning and a greater acceptance of doing whatever it takes to win has
suggested that psychological intervention may have salutary effects on
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moral development by counteracting these tendencies. Several stud-

ies have shown that explicit attention to moral training in sport and
physical activity settings can promote significant advances in the moral
reasoning maturity of children (Bredemeier, 2003). In one study, adult
leaders described to young athletes how they themselves thought about
and responded to moral issues involving themes of fairness, sharing,
verbal and physical aggression, and distributive and retributive jus-
tice. They also used dialogue aimed at resolving interpersonal conflicts
among the children as a vehicle for promoting moral growth. Children
in a control condition participated in the normal camp program. By
the end of the 6-week program, the children exposed to the interven-
tion scored higher on measures of moral reasoning (Bredemeier, Weiss,
Shields, & Shewchuk, 1986). Other research has shown that a mas-
tery motivational climate promotes higher moral standards in young
­athletes than does an ego climate (McArdle & Duda, 2002). This is one
way in which sports can provide a medium in which moral develop-
ment is facilitated.

Conclusions and
Future Directions

As we have seen, sport psychology interventions are a promising devel-

opment that can enhance the well-being and psychosocial development
of children and youth. This area constitutes an exciting arena for both
psychological research and intervention. The researcher can discover
the principles that govern the youth sport social system and that make
a difference in the well-being of its members. Similarly, the practitioner
is in a position to apply the principles and procedures of sport psychol-
ogy in a manner that can better the lives of many young athletes, their
coaches, and their parents. However, compared with interventions in
other areas of psychology, many sport psychology interventions have
not been empirically validated, and the ethical principles underlying
evidence-based practice demand much greater emphasis in this area.
 374 S mith and smoll

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