Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1545018

Impact of Foreign Players' Participation in The Palestinian Basketball League on Team Cohesion from The Perspective of Local Players

Provisionally accepted
Iyad Yousef Iyad Yousef *Mahmoud Kayed Mahmoud Kayed Sana Liftawi Sana Liftawi
  • Birzeit University, Birzeit, Palestine

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objective: The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of foreign players' participation in the Palestinian Basketball League on team cohesion from the perspective of local players. Methods: Using a descriptive-analytical method, the researchers developed a cohesion measurement tool with three dimensions: psychological, social, and team belonging. The tool comprised 30 items, equally distributed across the dimensions, based on player status, experience, and position. The study surveyed 84 players aged between 18 and 38 in the Palestinian Basketball League. Results: The findings revealed that cohesion was rated as moderate (mean = 3.32), with higher scores in team affiliation (3.50) compared to psychological cohesion (3.21). Experience-based differences showed that players with less than 5 years and more than 10 years of experience exhibited higher cohesion levels compared to those with 6-10 years. Positional differences favoured forwards and guards. Regarding player status, reserve players demonstrated higher cohesion in the psychological and team-belonging dimensions, although no significant differences were found in the social dimension. Conclusion: The study concludes that foreign players have a positive impact on team cohesion, and it was rated as moderate with higher scores in team affiliation compared to psychological cohesion. The researchers recommend careful selection of foreign players to enhance team cohesion and stability. This study contributes to the understanding of foreign players' role in fostering team dynamics and performance in the Palestinian Basketball League, expanding the literature on the topic. This study is original and valuable, as there has been almost no previous research that has measured and evaluated the impact of foreign players’ participation in the Palestinian basketball league on team cohesion from the perspective of local players.

    Keywords: Foreign players, Palestine Basketball League, team cohesion, Local Players, team performance

    Received: 13 Dec 2024; Accepted: 03 Feb 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Yousef, Kayed and Liftawi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Iyad Yousef, Birzeit University, Birzeit, Palestine

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.