Validating the TDRT-Q to assess the quality of the teacher-dancer relationship

Abstract

The capacity of coaches to enable or disable athletes’ engagement and ability to reach their potential through the quality of the relationship they develop with them has received substantial research attention, yet the equivalent dyad in dance contexts–the teacher-dancer relationship–has remained relatively unexplored. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to extrapolate Jowett’s 3C’s Coach-Athlete Relationship Model to the dance context and adapt and validate a Spanish translation of the CART-Q, a psychometric tool that has been extensively used to assess the coach-athlete relationship, to examine the teacher-dancer relationship. 175 Spanish dancers aged 18 to 40 (M = 22.47, SD = 4.85) of diverse performance levels and various dance disciplines completed the renamed Teacher-Dancer Relationship Questionnaire (TDRT-Q), the Spanish translation of the CART-Q adapted to dance contexts. A confirmatory factor analysis highlighted the hierarchical nature of the relationship as has been originally postulated containing Closeness, Commitment, and Complementarity. Overall the TDRT-Q demonstrated adequate psychometric properties. In line with these results, the 3C’s model can be transferred to analyse the teacher dancer relationship. Moreover, the TDRT-Q can be used to assess the quality of the teacher-dancer relationship and further advance knowledge and understanding in this achievement-orientated performing arts context.