EXAMINING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TEAM COHESION AND SELF-PRESENTATION

Within team sport, cohesion is not only associated with group level outcomes such as performance but also with individual outcomes, which may include a sense of protection and security. These benefits of group membership are related to reduced levels of anxiety associated with self-presentational concerns (Carron, Estabrooks, Horton, Prapavessis, & Hausenblas, 1999), which are inherent in sport competition (Leary, 1992). The purpose of this study was to examine how self-presentational concerns are predicted by perceptions of cohesion. It was hypothesized that high cohesion would be associated with low self-presentational concerns. A total of 163 competitive team sport athletes completed the Group Environment Questionnaire (GEQ: Carron, Widmeyer, & Brawley, 1985), Self-presentation in Sport Questionnaire (SPSQ; Wilson & Eklund, 1998), and the Sport Anxiety Scale (SAS; Smith, Smoll, & Shutz, 1990). Structural Equation Modeling determined that perceptions of cohesion (R= -.20) significantly predicted 4% of the variance of self-presentation in sport.