Relationships between perceived perfectionistic climate, perfectionism, resilience, fear of failure, and psychological wellbeing in youth athletes

Dargue-Fox, EJ ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-8519-5496, Mallinson-Howard, SH, Healy, LC ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1372-7308, Johnston, JP ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2954-5234 and Sarkar, M ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8338-8500, 2026. Relationships between perceived perfectionistic climate, perfectionism, resilience, fear of failure, and psychological wellbeing in youth athletes. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 85: 103131. ISSN 1469-0292

Preview

Text 2607889_Johnston.pdf - Published version Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract

In sport, perfectionism, along with its correlates and consequences, has predominantly been examined as an individual personality trait. However, the experiences of pressure to be perfect in sport may not always be internally generated but may also emanate from perceptions of the behaviors of key social agents, like a coach. This latter idea is known as perfectionistic climate. In the present study, using a cross-sectional design, we examined for the first time how youth athletes’ perceptions of a coach-created perfectionistic climate are associated with trait perfectionism (self-oriented perfectionism, socially prescribed perfectionism, and other-oriented perfectionism) and outcomes indicative of the overall quality of their sport experience. A sample of 678 youth athletes (Mage = 14.88 years, SDage = 1.81 years) competing at county level and above completed a one-off survey including established measures of perceived coach-created perfectionistic climate, trait perfectionism, resilience, fear of failure, and psychological wellbeing. Structural equation modeling indicated that perceptions of coach-created perfectionistic climate were positively associated with all three dimensions of trait perfectionism and fear of failure and negatively associated with resilience and psychological wellbeing. These findings suggest perceptions of a coach-created perfectionistic climate are linked to less adaptive outcomes among youth athletes and underscore the relevance of such perceptions in understanding variations in the quality of sport experiences. Further, they highlight the potential importance of addressing perceptions of coach-created perfectionistic climate in youth sport settings.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Psychology of Sport and Exercise
Creators:	Dargue-Fox, E.J., Mallinson-Howard, S.H., Healy, L.C., Johnston, J.P. and Sarkar, M.
Publisher:	Elsevier BV
Date:	July 2026
Volume:	85
ISSN:	1469-0292
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1016/j.psychsport.2026.103131 DOI S1469029226000725 Publisher Item Identifier 2607889 Other
Rights:	© 2026 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Science and Technology
Record created by:	Melissa Cornwell
Date Added:	15 Apr 2026 15:40
Last Modified:	15 Apr 2026 15:40
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/55559

Actions (login required)

Edit View

Statistics

Views

Downloads