Coaches’ Perceptions of Social Identity in Youth Sport: When Youth Athletes Think and Behave as “Us”

This study sought to examine coaches’ perceptions of social identity among their athletes and explore the ways that they may attempt to influence its development. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 12 head coaches ( M age = 49.25 years; SD = 6.5 years; M experience = 15.75 years; SD = 7.66 years; n female = 1) of male ( n = 8) and female ( n = 4) competitive youth ice hockey teams. Three main themes were identified through our analysis. First, the coaches’ perceptions of athletes’ social identities were described through examples of peer connection and similarity (i.e., in-group ties), athletes’ experience of positive affect (i.e., in-group affect), and athletes demonstrating the meaning and value that they attribute to…