It Depends on the Partner: Person-related Sources of Efficacy Beliefs and Performance for Athlete Pairs

Abstract

This study explored person-related sources of variance in athletes’ efficacy beliefs and performances when performing in pairs with distinguishable roles differing in partner dependence. College cheerleaders (n = 102) performed their role in repeated performance trials of two low- and two high-difficulty paired-stunt tasks with three different partners. Data were obtained on self-, other-, and collective efficacies and subjective performances, and objective performance assessments were obtained from digital recordings. Using the Social Relations Model framework, total variance in each belief/assessment was partitioned, for each role, into numerical components of person-related variance relative to the self, the other, and the collective. Variance component by performance role by task-difficulty RM-ANOVAs revealed the largest person-related variance component differed by athlete role and increased in size in high-difficulty tasks. Results suggest the extent athlete performance depends on a partner relates to the extent the partner is a source of self-, other-, and collective efficacy.