Abstract
Aim: The study aimed to understand the perceptions of mothers about the practice of figure skating by their daughters aged between 8 and 13 years old. Methods: Eight mothers of skaters belonging to a youth competition team were interviewed in a qualitative study, which used narratives as the methodological approach. The interview was structured with open-ended questions and the full transcriptions were analyzed through content analysis. Results: The results of the three categories of analysis - “Skating and competing: the first influences”; “Family models and maternal participation”; and “Behavior of parents in sporting events” - showed that mothers perceived they provide emotional and motivational support during their daughters' sports practice and that they do not exert pressure for results. To not recognize negative behaviors could be negative to the skaters and may be the result of an inconscient mechanism or the need of mothers to have socially accepted behavior. They also stressed anxiety during competitions and reported strategies to cope with it. Thus, it is important to raise awareness of this situation so mothers can have more resources to manage this fragile balance. Conclusions: The way mothers participate in their children's sports life and express their support influences their sports practice; therefore, to understand how mothers perceive their involvement in their daughters' sportive practice is important to develop best practices to guarantee the quality of the interaction between mothers-children and healthy psychological development.
Highlights
Many are the reasons that lead children and adolescents to sports practice - amongst which, learning new abilities, having fun, belonging to a group, experimenting with new challenges when competing, and the desire to win[1]
The importance of parents' role in their children's athletic development is perceived by coaches, as shown by Nunomura and Oliveira[9] in a study with coaches of formative categories of competitive artistic gymnastics in Brazil. Their results indicated that coaches recognized the benefits of parents' participation, i.e., how they encourage and support sports practice, their responsibility in transporting athletes to and from the training set, and how they monitor the training and the coaches' work
The present study is part of a broader study entitled “Effects of a mental training program for figure skating athletes”, the objective of which was to evaluate the effects of an intervention program for the teaching and development of psychological skills for children and adolescent figure roller skating athletes
Summary
Many are the reasons that lead children and adolescents to sports practice - amongst which, learning new abilities, having fun, belonging to a group, experimenting with new challenges when competing, and the desire to win[1]. The importance of parents' role in their children's athletic development is perceived by coaches, as shown by Nunomura and Oliveira[9] in a study with coaches of formative categories of competitive artistic gymnastics in Brazil Their results indicated that coaches recognized the benefits of parents' participation, i.e., how they encourage and support sports practice, their responsibility in transporting athletes to and from the training set, and how they monitor the training and the coaches' work. The authors indicated the benefits of the bonds provided by sports practice in their psychological development, since the feeling of affiliation and belonging is an important motivator that leads them to practice sports Such considerations express the complexity of the relationships established between parents and children in their insertion into competitive sports. Given the importance of parents in the sports practice of children, the present study aimed to understand the perceptions of mothers about the practice of figure skating by their daughters aged between 8 and 13 years old
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