Parent goals and verbal sideline behavior in organized youth sport.

Abstract

The present study examined the alignment of goals parents construct for their children with parent verbal sideline behavior at the earliest stage of youth sport. Semistructured interviews, parent journals, and in situ observation were employed with 4 parents over the initial 15 months of their children’s organized sport participation. Parent goals were categorized within the multiple goals framework (Caughlin, 2010; O’Keefe & Shepherd, 1987), verbal sideline behaviors were categorized using Holt, Tamminen, Black, Sehn, and Wall’s (2008) framework, and case narratives were constructed to offer an interpretation of the interplay of parent goals and verbal sideline behavior. Parents largely wanted their children to learn about sport and have fun; however, parents also reported changing some of their goals over time based on child outcomes and their evolving perceptions of the youth sport context. Often parent goals did not seem to align with verbal sideline behaviors. Findings highlight the development of parent goals over the earliest stage of their children’s organized youth sport participation, multiple forms of these goals (e.g., personal, conventional, task, ego), and both consistencies and inconsistencies between these goals and verbal sideline behavior.