Parent sport socialization, goals and verbal sideline behavior, and support and pressure in organized youth sport

This dissertation addresses multiple aspects of youth sport parenting through an ecological lens. Study 1 examines four parents\u27 experiences of parent sport socialization over the initial 15 months of their children\u27s participation. Three modes of data collection were employed: (a) semi-structured interviews with parents, athletes, and coaches; (b) parent journals; and (c) direct observation of parents. Informed by a social constructivist epistemology, themes were coded inductively and categorized deductively within Bronfenbrenner\u27s (1999, 2005) process-person-context-time (PPCT) model of human development. Findings showed youth sport to provide a context for family development and to afford a wide range of social interactions among athletes, parents, coaches, and spectators. Through these interactions, parents experienced a range of socialization processes as they transitioned into the role of youth sport parent. Study 2 examined the goals parents construct for their children and parent verbal sideline behavior, offering interpretation of how goals may align with verbal sideline behavior at the earliest stage of youth sport. Semi-structured interviews, parent journals, and in situ observation were employed with four parents over their initial 15 months of organized sport participation. Parent goals were categorized within the multiple goals framework (Caughlin, 2010; O\u27Keefe & Shepherd, 1987), verbal sideline behaviors were categorized using a framework proposed by Holt, Tamminen, Black, Sehn, and Wall (2008), and comprehensive case narratives were constructed offer interpretation of the interplay between goals and verbal sideline behavior. Participants communicated an idealized view of youth sport, but goals did not uniformly align with parent verbal sideline behaviors. Parents also adjusted goals based on child outcomes and their evolving perceptions of parent norms. The findings suggest that the majority of parent goals are conventional, but that personal goals may predominantly drive parent verbal sideline behavior (see Wilson, in press). Study 3 examined self, partner, and child perceptions (N = 201 families) of parent sport-related affect, the parent-child sport relationship, and the coach-created motivational climate as predictors of parent support and pressure in youth sport. Congruence among family reports was assessed via multitrait-multimethod analysis. Self, partner, and child reports of all study variables were significantly correlated in hypothesized directions; however, these correlations were of modest magnitude and low agreement scores indicated a lack of agreement among the reporters. Multivariate multiple regression analyses with warmth, conflict, positive and negative affect, and mastery and performance motivational climate predicting parent support and pressure showed significant multivariate relationships for father and mother self reports, partner reports of parents, and child reports of parents. Canonical loadings indicated that higher scores on warmth, positive affect, and mastery climate associate with higher perceptions of support, whereas higher scores on conflict, negative affect, and performance climate associate with higher perceptions of pressure from fathers and mothers. Higher perceptions of conflict and positive affect associated with higher scores of support and pressure in some functions, suggesting complexity in how parent involvement in organized youth sport is interpreted. Overall, the findings of the three studies deepen our understanding of youth sport parent involvement and illuminate promising future research directions on youth sport and family development