Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

Despite the significance of personal relationships to sport performers (see Coppell, 1995; Jowett and Meek, 2000), there is no single empirical study that examines the quality of personal relationships (romantic or marital) established between athletes and their partners. Consequently, based on relevant literature, four general aims were drawn:

• to examine the quality of professional athletes' relationship with their partners through the 'four Cs' (closeness, commitment, complementarity, and communication)
• to examine professional athletes' and their partners' vulnerabilities in terms of their relationship styles
• to examine the psychological interface between work (sport performance) and professional athletes' personal relationship with their partners through the notion of 'spill over'


• to explore the impact of relationship quality on athletes' sport peformance and athletes and partners' well-being

Further information about the project, may be found on the Economic and Social Research Council Functionality of Personal Relationships in the Face of Work Stressors award web page and the Research on the impact of personal relationships on high performance athletes project web site, based at Loughborough University.


Main Topics:

The main topics covered include the personal relationships and social psychology between athlete-partner couples.