Coaching for winning or holistic athlete development, or both? Validation of the two-dimensional Identity of Sport Coaches Scale (2-DISCS)

Coaches face the pressures of producing desired sport outcomes for athletes and teams and developing their athletes as holistic individuals. As a result, coaches may invest different amounts of time, passion, and effort in fostering different outcomes for athletes, including winning and holistic development, and thus view themselves as primarily oriented toward winning or holistic athlete development, or both. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate the Two-Dimensional Identity of Sport Coaches Scale (2-DISCS) designed to measure winning-centered and holistic development-centered coaching identities. The scale was developed using the 4Cs framework. Following literature review, an item pool was developed and submitted for content validation. Then, items were tested with collegiate coaches. In Study 1 (N = 946), initial factor structure was examined through confirmatory factor analysis. In Study 2 (N = 380), psychometric properties of the items were further assessed through confirmatory factor analysis. Results confirmed the two-factor structure. Measurement invariance was established across gender, NCAA Division, and position. Overall, results provided evidence of factorial validity, construct validity, and reliability of the scale. The 10-item 2-DISCS is suggested as a reasonable measure of winning-centered and holistic development-centered identity of sport coaches that can be used in future studies and in practice. However, future studies should further examine the validity of the 2-DISCS. Lay summary: Coaches may view themselves primarily oriented towards winning or holistic athlete development, or both. Utilizing the 4Cs framework, here we describe the development and validation of the Two-Dimensional Identity of Sport Coaches Scale (2-DISCS), a 10-item scale designed for coaches to measure winningcentered and holistic development-centered coaching identities.