Coach-promoted values and multiculturalism attitudes toward refugees in team sport athletes

In the sport and acculturation literature, coach-created motivational environments and coach-promoted pro-social behaviour have been identified as key factors for positive acculturation attitudes favoring integration and multiculturalism, both for incoming and host populations. The present study aimed to further explore the relationship between coach-created environment, focusing on sport values, and multiculturalism attitudes towards refugees, and to investigate the potential mediating role of empathy, among members of the host population. Participants were 401 Greek adolescents (140 girls) with a mean age of 13.92 years participating in organized team sports. Participants’ acculturation attitudes, empathy, and perception of the coach-promoted values were assessed in a cross-sectional correlational study. Analysis of structural models revealed that coach-promoted moral and competence values could predict athletes’ multiculturalism attitudes toward refugees; a partial mediation effect for empathy was identified for the relationship between coach-promoted competence values and multiculturalism attitudes. The results of the present study strengthen the positive links that have been found between moral and competence values and prosocial behaviors, while partially reinforcing previous findings regarding the mediating role of empathy in shaping multiculturalism attitudes toward incoming groups. The findings have important implications for promoting multiculturalism through sport and emphasize the need to consider the socio-moral environment created by the coach in young athletes’ acculturation preferences.