The Influence of Self-Efficacy on Team Cohesion among Chinese College Basketball Players

Basketball is a highly cooperative team sport in which athletes’ psychological characteristics play a critical role in team functioning and performance. Among these characteristics, self-efficacy has been widely recognized as a key determinant of individual behavior and motivation, while team cohesion is regarded as an essential factor for effective teamwork and competitive success; however, empirical evidence examining the relationship between self-efficacy and team cohesion among Chinese college basketball players remains limited. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between self-efficacy and team cohesion and to examine the predictive effect of self-efficacy on team cohesion among Chinese college basketball players. A total of 322 college basketball players participated in the study. Self-efficacy was assessed using the General Self-Efficacy Scale, and team cohesion was measured by the Group Environment Questionnaire. Pearson correlation and linear regression analyses were conducted using SPSS. The results showed that self-efficacy was significantly and positively correlated with overall team cohesion and its four dimensions, including group social attraction, group task attraction, group social integration, and group task integration (p < 0.01). Furthermore, self-efficacy significantly predicted team cohesion, accounting for 89.4% of the variance (R² = 0.894, p < 0.001). These findings indicate that higher levels of self-efficacy among college basketball players are associated with stronger team cohesion, suggesting that enhancing athletes’ self-efficacy may serve as an effective psychological approach to improving team cohesion and overall team performance in collegiate basketball settings.