Abstract
Drawing from the model of parental involvement in sport, the overall purpose was to examine the associations of perceptions of parenting practices (encouragement, reinforcement, instruction, and role modeling) and athletes’ psychological variables (self-efficacy, social self-efficacy, self-regulation, and intrinsic motivation) of elite and sub-elite youth athletes. Participants were elite (n = 210) and sub-elite (n = 635) athletes aged between 14 and 18 years (Mage = 16.58, SD = 1.33). Structural equation modeling analysis revealed that young elite athletes’ perceptions of sport-related parenting practices are associated with their psychological skills and performance level in sport. Specifically, in comparison with their sub-elite peers, perceptions of parental encouragement had a significantly different strong effect on intrinsic motivation. Moreover, perceptions of parental modeling revealed different effects on performance level, as well as on intrinsic motivation, and self-regulation. These perceptions of parenting practices may promote a positive learning environment, resulting in an increased likelihood of achieving a high level of sport performance in comparison with their sub-elite peers.
Highlights
Achievement of elite in sport is influenced by the type of experiences that young athletes have throughout their development, including the psychosocial relationships they establish with their parents (Côté, 1999)
Twelve multivariate (Mahalanobis distance = p1 and p2 < 0.001) and univariate (z < 3.00) outliers emerged. These cases were removed from subsequent analyzes
The findings of this study suggest that perceived encouragement and reinforcement were positively associated with both elite and sub-elite athletes
Summary
Achievement of elite in sport is influenced by the type of experiences that young athletes have throughout their development, including the psychosocial relationships they establish with their parents (Côté, 1999). Researchers have tested the influence of parents’ behaviors on young athletes’ psychological variables in sport (e.g., Babkes and Weiss, 1999; Fredricks and Eccles, 2005), research has generated few empirical data demonstrating how parenting practices influence young athletes’ attainment of high levels of performance in sport. Theoretical frameworks that guided research on parents’ influences on differential child outcomes in sport and physical activity, such as the Eccles’ model of parental influence on children’s motivation and achievement (e.g., Fredricks and Eccles, 2004) do not specify the characteristics of parents’ involvement and support in competitive sport situations (Holt et al, 2008). We use this model as a framework to examine the associations between parenting practices and psychological skills of elite and sub-elite youth athletes.
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