Demographic and Behavioral Traits of Coaches Preferred by Female Athletes in Teacher Training Colleges in Central Region of Kenya.

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to establish demographic and behavioural traits of coaches preferred by female athletes in teacher training colleges in central region of Kenya. This study investigated female athletes’ preference for male or female coaches, youthful or elderly coaches, coach leadership behavior, coaching experience, personal relationship with the coach, the coach ability to motivate, and feedback and encouragement from the coach. The study adopted the descriptive survey research design. The target population for the study comprised female athletes in certificate and diploma teacher training colleges. Stratified random sampling technique was used to obtain the sample size. The teacher training colleges were stratified into two strata; certificate teacher training colleges and diploma teacher training college. Simple random sampling technique was used to select50% certificate teacher training colleges. Since there was only one diploma teacher training college, it was purposively selected. The study selected 444 (21.6%) respondents from the two randomly selected certificate teacher colleges and the one diploma training college. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to code and analyze the data. The data were summarized into descriptive statistics of frequencies and percentages. The results were presented in the form of tables. The hypotheses were tested using Wilcoxon signed ranks test at significance level of 0.05. The study results revealed that female athletes differ in their preference for male or female coaches and also youthful or elderly coaches. The coach leadership behaviour, coaching experience, personal relationship with the coach, the coach ability to motivate, feedback and encouragement of the coach were all found to be behavioural traits of coaches preferred by female athletes. As a result, the researcher has recommended having an assistant female coach when a male coach is coaching female athletes, coaches engaging in coaching behaviours to which female athlete is receptive, and the management of teacher training colleges addressing the demographic and behavioural traits of coaches preferred by female athletes.