Coaching as a profession: Ethical concerns

The Canadian Professional Coaching Association (CPCA) recently developed a code of ethics for coaches that was based on the Canadian Psychological Association's ethical code. Because the CPCA did not use coaches' actual experiences to develop their code, we solicited sport-related ethical concerns from coaches to determine the comprehensiveness of the code. Twelve male and seven female coaches from both individual and team sports, as well as from various levels of sport, participated in focus group sessions. Content analyses of the transcribed sessions identified nine major areas of ethical concern. Illustrations of these nine areas are presented and discussed in relation to the four principles that form the basis of CPCA's Code of Ethics.