Coaches who demand perfection feel more competition stress

The summary today

There is a single study, of 113 coaches of Korean school archery teams who filled in two questionnaires during a national youth championship. Those who demand perfection of themselves report slightly more competition stress (correlation 0.26), and so do those who demand it of others (0.24); the sense that others demand perfection of you, by contrast, is linked to no source of stress at all. The most interesting finding is the double sign: the same self-oriented perfectionism goes with more stress at competitions but with less stress over working conditions (-0.24) and workload (-0.32), as if it helped where there is organising to do and weighed where there is a result to deliver. The effects are small: in the regressions perfectionism explains 9.8% of competition stress and no more than 11.3% of any source. It is a correlation taken at a single moment, on the eve of competition or on the day itself, in coaches who were mostly men in their twenties, and competition stress is measured with just two questions: it cannot say whether perfectionism produces the stress, or whether a coach's stress reaches the archer.

Also phrased as: "perfectionist coach"; "coach stress at competitions"; "demanding coaches"; "perfectionism in coaching"

Evidence

• 2008
  For Archers Published later

  113 coaches of Korean school archery teams, perfectionism and job stress scales completed during a national youth championship: self-oriented perfectionism correlates with competition stress at r = 0.26 (p < 0.01).

  Relationship between Perfectionism and Job Stress of Archery Trainers · Kil-Dong Hong, Tae-Hui Lim, Young-Ju Ko

• 2008
  For Archers Published later

  In the same study demanding perfection of others correlates with competition stress at r = 0.24 and with workload stress at r = 0.20 (p < 0.01). Socially prescribed perfectionism, the sense that others are the ones demanding it, does not correlate significantly with any of the five sources of stress.

  Relationship between Perfectionism and Job Stress of Archery Trainers · Kil-Dong Hong, Tae-Hui Lim, Young-Ju Ko

• 2008
  Context Archers Published later

  The double sign in the same sample: self-oriented perfectionism goes with less stress over working conditions (r = -0.24) and workload (r = -0.32, p < 0.01), while with competitions the sign is positive.

  Relationship between Perfectionism and Job Stress of Archery Trainers · Kil-Dong Hong, Tae-Hui Lim, Young-Ju Ko

• 2008
  Context Archers Published later

  How much perfectionism weighs in the regressions: it explains 6.5% of working-conditions stress, 9.8% of competition stress and 11.3% of workload stress. No model is significant for support-system or interpersonal stress, and socially prescribed perfectionism enters none of the equations.

  Relationship between Perfectionism and Job Stress of Archery Trainers · Kil-Dong Hong, Tae-Hui Lim, Young-Ju Ko

• 2008
  Context Archers Published later

  The profile of the sample and its answers: 83 men (73.5%) and 30 women, 65 coaches (57.5%) in their twenties. Perfectionism is directed mainly at the self (3.88 out of 5) rather than at others (2.87) or felt as imposed (2.22); among the sources of stress, working conditions (3.87) and competitions (3.61) come first and relationships with people (2.24) last.

  Relationship between Perfectionism and Job Stress of Archery Trainers · Kil-Dong Hong, Tae-Hui Lim, Young-Ju Ko

Status history

1. 1984 Not studied Nobody in the registry's bibliography has yet measured the stress of archery coaches, or its link with the way they demand perfection of themselves or of others.
2. 2008 Reported The only survey puts two questionnaires in front of a hundred and thirteen Korean school team coaches during a national championship. Self-oriented perfectionism goes with more competition stress (r = 0.26) and, at the same time, with less stress over working conditions and workload (r = -0.24 and -0.32), while demanding perfection of others goes with more stress over both competitions (0.24) and workload (0.20); perfectionism felt as imposed from outside goes with nothing. In the regressions perfectionism explains between 6.5 and 11.3% of the stress. Cross-sectional correlations in a single sample, young and largely male, in a regional journal: reported.

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