Honors Program
University Honors
Date of Award
5-2026
Thesis Professor(s)
Andrea D. Clements
Thesis Professor Department
Psychology
Thesis Reader(s)
Eric W. Sellers
Abstract
Although correlations between coaching behaviors and mental health have been investigated before, research that extensively analyzes collegiate athletes’ willingness to seek out mental healthcare has not been conducted. Previous research shows that coaching behaviors correlate with athlete mental health and even predict depression levels more accurately than their own personality traits. The current study aimed to analyze the relationship between athletes’ perceived controlling coaching behaviors and their mental health-help seeking attitudes. Participants were surveyed to determine their perception of controlling coaching behaviors, available emotional support, athlete-coach relationship satisfaction, and mental health seeking attitudes. It was found that perceived aspects of controlling coaching were negatively correlated with mental health seeking attitudes. Implications, as well as limitations and future directions, will be discussed.
Publisher
East Tennessee State University
Document Type
Honors Thesis - Open Access
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Cacheiro, Maria C., "Associations Between Controlling Coaching Behaviors and Mental Health Help Seeking Attitudes in Collegiate Athletes" (2026). Undergraduate Honors Theses. Paper 853. https://dc.etsu.edu/honors/853
Copyright
Copyright by the authors.
