Participating in coaching research?! Attitudes of coaches toward coaching research and their impact upon research participation.

Abstract

In order to advance coaching as a field of evidence-based practice, it is necessary to further extend its empirical basis and to actively involve practitioners in research. We therefore analyzed coaches' attitudes toward coaching research, factors that impact upon their attitudes, and how their attitudes in turn impact upon their willingness to participate in coaching research. We surveyed 252 coaches with an adapted version of the Attitudes to Psychotherapy Research Questionnaire (APRQ; Taubner et al., 2014). Factor analysis revealed four distinct attitude factors: (1) benefit of and (2) damage through coaching research, (3) fear of exposure of coaching inefficacy, and (4) effort related to participation in coaching research. Coaches' experience (i.e., novices vs. experts; having undergone coach training vs. not) and their membership in a coaching association predicted attitudes toward coaching research, namely for factors (1), (2), and (3), while disciplinary background did not. All four factors as well as previous research participation significantly predicted willingness to participate in coaching research. Our findings can help narrow the practice-research gap by stimulating coaches to reflect upon their engagement with research and by aiding researchers to design future studies in ways that take into account practitioners' interests and concerns.