The development of psychological resources during the coach training process
Participant Information

You are invited to participate in a research study about the development of psychological resources during the coach training process.  The goal of this research study is to understand more about what happens to your internal resources as you train as a coach, along with how external factors influence your development. This study is being conducted by Isabelle Fielding and Ronie Walters who are two independent researchers. This work is being conducted independently and there are no funding bodies involved.

Participation in this study is voluntary. If you agree to participate in this study, you will be asked to complete 3 online questionnaires – one now (before, or at the beginning of your training), another half way through your training, and then again at the end of your training. The survey includes questions about a range of psychological concepts and there will also be prompts for you to reflect on your coach training journey at each of these timepoints.

Participating in this study will have the following benefits:

At the individual level: If you choose to take part in this research, you will be encouraged to practice self-reflection and goal setting. Because the study is longitudinal, we will (on request) provide you with a report showing changes over time at the mid and end points of the research. This may help you understand your own process, and support self-development and growth.

At the coaching school level: The participating coach training schools will be amongst the first to receive the results of this research. This can be useful to you in two ways: firstly, they may use the insights to consider if they want or need to adapt their training process to support students at key time points. Secondly, they may use the insights from this study to support their marketing.

At a wider level: Without research like this, the coaching industry lacks robust evidence. This evidence is important for coaching to be taken seriously as an evidence-led practice.

The information you will share with us if you participate in this study will be kept completely confidential to the full extent of the law. While we do collect your email address to send further surveys to you, and match your data across time, your information will be assigned a code number that is unique to this study. The list connecting your email address to this number will be kept in a locked file on a secure drive, and only the researchers will be able to see the survey you participated in.

Study findings will be presented only in summary form and your name or email address will not be used in any report. No one at your coach training school will be able to see your survey or even know whether you participated in this study. We may use example quotes in our report from the things you write in the reflection questions, but these will be anonymised and not attributable to you as an individual. When the study is completed and the data have been analysed, the list linking participant’s email address to study numbers will be destroyed.

While the researchers will keep your information confidential, there are some risks of data breeches when sending information over the internet that are beyond the control of the investigators Both researchers are registered with the ICO and have strong GDPR processes (see isabellefielding.co.uk/privacy for more details). While formal ethical approval is not required for this study, we will be conducting the work following the British Psychological Society’s Code of Human Research Ethics

If you have any questions about this study, please contact Lead Researcher Isabelle Fielding