What Motives Influence Parents' Commitment to Their Children's Sport Participation in the United States?

Background

The public often places value on youth sport involvement in the United States due to its potential to foster positive outcomes for participants. Although sport parents are key socializers and provide access to appropriate participation opportunities for children, less is known about how their perceptions of their child's motives influence their sport commitments. Purpose: Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to understand how parents' perceptions of their child's motives for sport participation were associated with time/travel sport commitments.

Methods

Participants (N = 1250) were parents in the United States reporting on their child's youth sport participation. Measures assessed their perceptions of their child's motives for sport involvement, how many hours per week and months per year they engaged in sport, and how far they tended to drive to facilitate sport opportunities. Multiple regressions were utilized.

Results

Analyses revealed that the number of months per year was positively predicted by motives for being physically healthy and spending time with friends. Similarly, being with friends was a positive predictor of the number of weekly hours spent in organized sport and having fun positively predicted the distance driven to participate. Motives for becoming more physically attractive negatively predicted time and travel commitments.

Conclusions

Overall, the present study sheds light on how the ways parents perceive their children's motivations for participating in youth sport influences parents' commitment to facilitating sport participation opportunities for their children.