Coaches' benevolent leadership and athletes' psychological wellbeing: The role of caring climate

Abstract

The leadership style of coaches plays a vital role in affecting athletes' psychological well-being; however, little is known about the relationship between coaches' benevolent leadership and their athletes' psychological wellbeing. The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating mechanism of caring climate in the link between benevolent leadership and psychological wellbeing. With a sample of 295 university athletes from three universities in China, we conducted structural equation modeling to test our hypotheses. The results indicated that coaches' benevolent leadership was positively related to the psychological well-being of athletes, and that caring climate mediated this relationship. Findings from this study highlight the significance of adopting benevolent leadership and creating a caring climate as a means of enhancing the psychological well-being of university athletes.