Área de Lenguaje y Comunicación

It’s well established that parents, peers, teachers and coaches all play a role influencing male and female attitudes and behaviours towards physical activity and sport participation during childhood and early adolescence (Brustad, 1993, 1996; Coakley & White, 1999; Côté, 2002; Côté & Hay, 2002b; Côté, Baker, & Abernethy, 2003; Davison, Downs, & Birch, 2006; Fredricks &Eccles, 2004, Holt, Tamminen, Black, Sehn, & Wall, 2008; Holt, Tamminen, Black, Mandigo, & Fox, 2009; Horn & Horn, 2007; Kirk & Macphail, 2003; Lally & Kerr, 2005; Morgan & Giacoobbi, 2006; Patrick, Ryan, Alfeld-Liro, Fredricks, Hruda, & Eccles, 1999; Scanlan & Lewthwaite, 1986). These wide-ranging influences combined with opportunities to participate and observe, create a powerful social process referred to as socialisation (Greendorfer & Bruce, 1991; Greendorfer, 1993).

Substantial research from within the youth participation literature reveals how the primary drivers of any effective sport development model are financial, emotional and

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practical parental support (Coakley & White, 1999; Davison et al., 2006; Fredricks & Eccles, 2002; Green & Chalip, 1997; Kay, 2003; Thompson, 1999; Wuerth, Lee,& Alfermann, 2004) and how parents provide the greatest impact on socialization and play a central role in the development of their child’s sporting development throughout childhood and early adolescence (Baker & Horton, 2004; Gould, Lauer, Rolo, Jannes, & Pennisi, 2006, 2008; Holt, Tamminen, Black, Sehn, & Wall, 2008; Jodi, Michael, Malanchuk, Eccles, & Sameroff, 2001; Kay, 2000; Macphail, Gorley, & Kirk, 2003). An important implication to emerge from the literature is how the impact a parent may have upon the development of their child’s sporting career appears to diminish as they approach mid-adolescence and coach, teacher and peer input starts to become more significant. This is reflected in a range of studies which have found how children assign significant influence to the role of peers in shaping their sports participation trends during the adolescence years (e.g., Bois, Sarrazin, Brustad, Trouilloud, & Cury, 2002; Coleman & Roker, 1998; Fredricks, Alfeld-Liro, Hruda, Eccles, Patrick, & Ryan, 2002; Fredricks & Eccles, 2004; Horn & Weiss, 1991; Lauer et al., 2010a; Patrick et al., 1999; Weiss & Barber, 1995; Wolfenden & Holt, 2005; Woolger & Power, 1993).

This finding was further emphasised by Smith (2003) and Patrick et al., (1999) who alleged peer relationships played a crucial role in youth sports and Weiss and Weiss (2004) who identified how sports participation trends of best friends were a strong predictor of adolescent sport commitment and involvement. The research undertaken by Abernethy, Côté, and Baker (2002) also demonstrated the influential role that individuals may play in determining the sports participation trends of their peers as 15 Australian elite team sports athletes all possessed close friends who competed in similar sports during the initial stages of their careers. The youth sports participation literature has also revealed how both sport and physical activity participation patterns undertaken

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by children generally parallel those of their parents (Côté, 1999; Davison, Downs, & Birch, 2006; Scheerder et al., 2006; Stevenson, 1990) and a collection of positive (emotional & tangible support) and negative (pressure) influences that parents have tended to inflict upon their children throughout their sporting careers (Brustad & Partridge, 2002; Horn & Horn, 2007; Lauer et al., 2010a, 2010b; Partridge, Brustad & Babkes Stellino, 2008, Wolfenden & Holt, 2005).

Parents also need to be aware of any unintentional pressures they may display or exert upon their child if they are to remain actively engaged within sport (Young & Medic, 2008) as children have been found to report enhanced enjoyment in sport when they perceive their parents are positively involved with their sport participation (McCarthey & Jones, 2007). To emphasise this point, studies by Gould, Eklund, Petlichkoff, Peterson, and Bump (1991) and Leff and Hoyle (1995) reported elevated child anxiety levels when they perceived their parents as over involved, upholding excessively high expectations and exerting significant pressure to perform. Likewise, Gould et al., (1996a, 1996b) found increased anxiety, dropout and burnout levels were positively associated with high amounts of parental pressure, criticism and expectation and low amounts of parental support. Hill and Hansen (1988) also revealed how parents often inflicted considerable pressure upon their children by encouraging them to undertake specialisation pathways through funded instruction and providing sport specific facilities in the home. Similarly, research by Barber and Sutko (1998) revealed parent coaches can inflict negative influences upon their child’s sport participation if they become over involved and place unreasonable and unrealistic pressures upon them to achieve.

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The critical roles that coaches are encouraged to undertake throughout an athlete’s development are well publicised in the deliberate play and diversification literatures (Bloom, 1985; Côté, 1999; Côté & Fraser-Thomas, 2007; Fraser-Thomas et al., 2008a, 2008b; MacPhail & Kirk, 2006; Wiersma, 2000, Zaichkowsky, & Haberl, 1999). This literature encourages coaches to delay exposing their athletes with specialised training until athletes are both physically and psychosocially mature enough to cope with the physical and mental requirements of deliberate practice and ensuring how practice environments are fun, athlete centred and task motivated. Further examples of effective coaching practice include dividing attention to all participants, placing athletes with peers of similar age groups and maintaining effective and regular communication with parents. The research by Gould et al., (1996a, 1996b), Pelletier, Fortier, Vallerand, and Briere, (2001) and Price and Weiss (2000) further revealed how athletes are increasingly vulnerable to reductions in motivation to participate, dropout and burnout when they encounter coaches who employ autocratic delivery styles and provide poor social support including unrealistic expectations and lack of empathy. Together, the findings of Côté and colleagues over the past decade in addition to Holt and Dunn (2004) and Hunt (2006) suggest how maintaining a long term commitment to achieving expert status will remain if individuals experience initial success, enjoy the activities they are involved within and receive encouragement and support within their social climate.

A recurrent finding within the studies undertaken by Bloom (1985), Hemery (1986), Durand-Bush and Salmela, (2002), Gould et al., (2002) and Vernacchia et al., (2000) was how internationally recognised performers in sport, art and science were introduced to their respective domains by parents and all experienced substantial encouragement advice and guidance from various social contexts. This research also revealed how

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sizable long term financial contributions were made by parents towards their child’s teaching and equipment costs and extensive amounts of time were devoted to transporting their children to and from training and competitions. The extreme measure of a family relocating to be closer to a coach and training facilities was also reported. The contributory role of social support in acquiring excellence is also evident throughout the mainstream expertise literature (see Meig, 2006 for an overview). For example, Gardner’s (1993) study demonstrated how support mechanisms provided by family and friends enabled outstanding contributors to society to remain single minded and focussed throughout their development.