A Qualitative Study Examining Parental Involvement in Youth Sports over a One-Year Intervention Program

The purpose of this 12-month intervention program was to examine parent-child relationship changes within the sports context. A qualitative interpretative phenomenological analysis was used for the study design. Ten families consented to in-depth interviews. The participants were 10 youth sport parents who had one child each aged 5-6 years. The intervention program involved the participation of all the parents and children. The program integrated psychological, educational, and sports skills into pre-organized sports training sessions. The study results revealed that the intervention program had a positive impact on the parent-child relationship in the sports context. Additionally, the study results suggest that parental involvement in the intervention program positively affected parent-child attachment, the quality of interpersonal relationships between the parent and the child, and effective parenting strategies. Future intervention programs should include both parent and children dyads.