Attitudes of Soccer Coaches Toward Youth Players with Mild Mental Retardation: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Attitudes and selected attributes of youth soccer coaches (N = 82, 18 women, 63 men, and one person who did not identify his/her gender) toward coaching a player with mild mental retardation (MMR) were assessed by Coaches’ Attitudes Toward Players With Disabilities (CAP-S) survey. Intereorrelations among 11 variables were reported. The highest were r = .72 between belief and attitude, and r = .57 between belief and intention. Results from a stepwise selection multiple regression procedure showed that as perceived soccer coaching competence increased, beliefs about coaching a player with MMR showed greater agreement. Results also indicated that, as perceived soccer coaching competence increased, attitudes and intention toward coaching a player with MMR improved. Perceived soccer coaching competence explained only a small amount of the variance for beliefs, attitudes, and intentions.