Importance of Group Cohesion on Team Persistence During the Next Season: A Longitudinal Study of Senior and Trainee Team Sports Players

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to analyze the relationship between the group cohesion of the team players with the intention of persistence in the team. For this, a total of 413 handball, basketball and soccer players aged between 16 and 39 years (M = 22.32; SD = 5.30), completed the measures of group cohesion and team persistence. Structural equation modeling was used to test the relationships between both variables. First, the results revealed positive correlations of the task and social cohesion factors with persistence in the team. Second, the regression analysis showed a positive and significant prediction between task cohesion and the intention to persist in the team. However, social cohesion did not show a significant prediction regarding the feeling of persistence to the team. Therefore, the union of the players in the training tasks and during the development of the competition, contributes to the feeling of persisting in a team, thereby increasing the block of players for several seasons.