Parental involvement in sport : improving the quality of children's sport experience & wellbeing

This thesis aimed to extend knowledge concerning parental involvement in improving the quality of children's sport experience and well-being. A literature review was conducted to identify the current status of knowledge in the area through a systematic review of studies applicable to the antecedents and consequences children experience in youth sport due to their parent's involvement. The findings provided up-to-date knowledge and recommendations. The first study answered; Does parental perfectionism tendencies influence children's development of motivation and beliefs in youth sport? Overall, the findings suggest that actual parental perfectionism has no effect on the development of children's motivation and beliefs in youth sport. Building upon this, the following studies examined the perceptions of parental involvement behaviors due to actual parental involvement demonstrating a non-significant influence. Therefore, the purpose of the following three studies was to examine if parental involvement behavior are positively associated with positive youth outcome; such as perceptions of support, stress appraisal, life-skills, 5 C's and well-being outcomes. Study two, demonstrated that children's perceptions of parental involvement behaviours were significantly associated with perceived available support and well-being. Contrary to expectations, children's perceptions of social support emerged as a non-significant mediator between perceived parental involvement and cognitive appraisal. Results from study three and four highlighted that perceptions of parental involvement behaviors were significantly related to some of the eight life skills and 5 C'S outcomes. Further, only perceptions of parental reinforcement and modelling had a significant direct effect on children's psychological flourishing. Contrary to expectation, there was no significant direct effect of parental involvement behaviours on athletes positive and negative emotion. In practice, the results of studies 3 and 4 suggest that perceptions of parental involvement behaviours have a significant effect on participants life-skills and 5 C's and on psychological flourishing. The discussion focuses on the current status of the research area of youth sport, the limitations of this thesis, suggested practical implications and future research directions. The findings of the literature review and the following four studies highlight the importance of developing perceived support and positive youth outcomes in buffering parental involvement behaviours typically associated with youth sport to promote a positive sporting experiences and psychological well-being for youth sport participants.