Coach Expectations and Athlete Lay Beliefs: Interactions When Predicting Adolescent Athletes’ Enjoyment and Intentions to Return

The purpose of this study was to explore how athlete lay beliefs and coach expectations for athletes’ capacity to change interact when predicting enjoyment and intentions to continue in sport. Athletes (N = 202) and their 19 coaches completed surveys. Athletes with strong incremental (i.e., growth) mind-sets reported more enjoyment from affiliation and expending effort. Athletes with strong entity (i.e., fixed) mind-sets reported lower enjoyment from self-improvement, affiliation, and excitement. Regarding interactions, although athletes reported lower intentions and self-improvement enjoyment when a coach believed they had little likelihood of developing, these associations were attenuated for athletes with strong incremental mind-sets.