Parental involvement in school sport: Perceptions of competitive rugby union players

Parental involvement in sport is seen as a double-edged sword, with positive influences on one side, and negative consequences and pressure on the other. The purpose of this article is to examine perceived parental involvement among a group of competitive male adolescent rugby union players and how it affected their total sporting experience. A quantitative approach used the Parental Involvement in Sport Questionnaire (PISQ) to obtain the perception of players (n=75) participating in the rugby union A-League in a South African city. The findings of this study contradict previous research that reiterates the negative involvement of parents in youth sport. Players enjoyed their rugby, and they wished for more active involvement and more praise and understanding from their parents, especially from their fathers. They seemed to be satisfied with the amount of directive behaviour exhibited by their parents. Care should however be taken not to overemphasise isolated negative parental involvement incidents with possible detrimental effects to the integration of well-managed quality parental involvement in school sport programmes.Keywords: Parental involvement, rugby union, parental pressure, parental involvement in sport Questionnaire (PISQ)