Emotional labor in sports coaching: A systematic review
Sports coaching is an emotionally charged context. To manage their emotions appropriately, coaches need to undertake emotional labor. This first systematic review concerning sport coaches’ emotional labor aimed: (1) to analyze the psychological definitions of coaches’ emotional labor; (2)...
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| Auteurs principaux: | , , |
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| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Langue: | Français |
| Publié: |
2026
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| Sujets: | |
| Accès en ligne: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Résumé: | Sports coaching is an emotionally charged context. To manage their emotions appropriately, coaches need to undertake emotional labor. This first systematic review concerning sport coaches’ emotional labor aimed: (1) to analyze the psychological definitions of coaches’ emotional labor; (2) to identify the research design used to analyze coaches’ emotional labor; (3) to study the antecedents of coaches’ emotional labor; and (4) to examine the consequences of emotional labor on coaches’ psychology. The analysis of the literature was conducted using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) 2020 checklist. Pubmed, ScienceDirect, SportDISCUSS, PsycINFO, and Google Scholar were used to identify psychological studies on coaches’ emotional labor. 21 empirical studies met the inclusion criteria and received a quality score exceeding 50% after assessment by two researchers. These studies were thematically analyzed and narratively synthesized. Four insights have been highlighted: (1) the psychological definition of emotional labor has, to some extent, moved away from the original sociological approach; (2) the designs of the studies are mostly quantitative to investigate the relationships between emotional labor and other variables; (3) researchers revealed person-centered (e.g., affectivity) and context-centered (e.g., context of coaching) antecedents for coaches’ emotional labor; (4) the consequences of emotional labor have been examined by identifying relationships with psychological costs (e.g., burnout) or influences on the context. This systematic review highlighted the value of conducting new empirical analysis on the situational aspects of coaches’ emotional labor. This approach will reveal the strategies that evolve in conjunction with intricate work situations.
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