Advancing Our Understanding of Psychological Stress and Coping Among Parents in Organized Youth Sport.

Chris G. Harwood,Faye F. Didymus,Lucy Frearson,Matthew J. Slater,Sam N. Thrower

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01600

Abstract

The current study investigated psychological stress among parents of competitive British tennis players. Adopting a multipart concurrent mixed method design, 135 British tennis parents completed a cross sectional online questionnaire to examine their primary appraisals, emotions, and coping strategies associated with self-disclosed stressors. Hierarchical content analysis was conducted on open ended questionnaire responses to identify key stressors and coping strategies, and descriptive and inferential statistics were utilized to explore the differences between various components of the process. The findings revealed a range of organizational, competitive, and developmental stressors. These stressors were predominantly appraised as harm or challenge, and anxiety and anger were the most prominent emotions that the parents experienced. Statistically, parents experienced greater anger in relation to competition (compared to organizational and developmental) stressors, whilst harm appraisal increased negative emotions, and challenge appraisal increased positive emotions. Findings also highlighted how parents used a number of mastery, internal regulation, and goal withdrawal coping strategies, which varied statistically in degrees of reported effectiveness. The contribution of these findings to the stress literature and their applied implications are discussed.

Highlights

Psychological stress among athletes and coaches has been well documented in the sport psychology literature (e.g., Didymus and Fletcher, 2012; Didymus, 2017)
Data relating to stressors are presented first, followed by primary appraisals, emotions, coping strategies, and coping effectiveness
The final sub-sections of the results explore the statistical differences in emotions experienced and coping strategy effectiveness

Summary

Introduction

Psychological stress among athletes and coaches has been well documented in the sport psychology literature (e.g., Didymus and Fletcher, 2012; Didymus, 2017). Transactional and relational theories of stress are some of the most widely used and tested in sport [see e.g., transactional stress theory; Lazarus and Folkman, 1984; cognitive-motivational-relational theory (CMRT) of stress and emotion; Lazarus, 1999, 2000]. These theories posit that stress is a transaction between an individual and his or her environment, and that individuals appraise stressors in relation to their goals, values, and beliefs. Researchers have more recently, started to explore the relationships and interactions between different components of stress transactions (e.g., stressors, appraisal, emotion, and coping; Nicholls et al, 2012; Doron and Martinent, 2017; Gomes et al, 2017)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion