Abstract des Autors

The purpose of this research was to explore British athletes' perceptions of sport psychologists. British college athletes were selected as subjects for this study because atheltes represent a primary consumer of sport psychology services and because it would be possible to compare British college athletes' perceptions to those of U.S. college athletes (Van Raalte et al., 1992). In the U.S. system, intercollegiate sport is institutionally sponsored. That is, colleges and universities in the U.S. pay the salaries of coaches and other support staff (e.g., athletic administrators, athletic trainers, academic counselors, sport psychologists) and provide funding for travel, equipment, and officiating. For some sports in the U.S., (e.g., baseball, football, men's basketball), intercollegiate competition serves as a farm system for professional leagues. In contrast, the British university sport system is club based, organized and administered by students and funded via the campus student union. Funding for athletic support staff is generally not available, and participation in interuniversity sport does not normally provide a route to professional sport. Perceptions of sport psychologists have been found to be relatively consistent in studies conducted in North America (Linder et al., 1991; Van Raalte et wal., 1990, 1992, 1993). However, because the British intercollegiate sport system differs significantly from that of North America, no predictions about British athletes' perceptions of sport psychologists were made. Verf.-Referat