Self efficacy and performance in italian professional volley-ball players

Sixty-three male volleyball players (mean age = 27.20 y.o. sd=4.99) competing for the national tournament and 65 female volleyball players (mean age =23.6 y.o.; sd=5.4) competing for the regional tournament participated to the study. All athletes filled out a 24-item sport-specific personal Self-Efficacy scale (e.g., technical skills, relationship with team and coach), a 19-item sport-specific Collective Self-Efficacy Scale, and the 18-item Group Environment Questionnaire measuring team cohesion. National athletes’ volleyball performance was assessed by utilizing several performance scores (e.g., number of receptions and number of attacks) recorded during two tournament games over the course of three months and aggregated to obtain measures of performance efficiency. The regional athletes’ volleyball performance was instead assessed by asking team coaches to evaluate their players on a 10-item performance scale around the time of the athletes’ questionnaire assessment. A series of regression analyses permitted to evaluate the relative effects that Personal and Collective Self Efficacy, as well as team cohesion had on athletes’ performance improvement over time among national athletes, and on coaches’ performance evaluations among regional volleyball athletes. Among national volleyball players, both forms of efficacy beliefs and task cohesion contributed to athletes’ improvement in reception efficiency, whereas only task cohesion contributed positively to athletes’ attack efficiency. Among regional volleyball players, both forms of efficacy beliefs and task cohesion positively predicted coaches’ evaluations of athletes’ performance.