A Citation Network Analysis of Research on Parent-Child Interactions in Youth Sport

Abstract

Citation network analysis is a systematic technique that affords the synthesis of scholarship in a well-defined content area. In an effort to highlight the citation structure of research on parent–child interactions in youth sport, multiple databases were searched using all 12 combinations of the following keywords: (Level 1) “families,” “parents,” “fathers,” and “mothers”; (Level 2) “children,” “adolescents,” and “athletes”; and (Level 3) “sport.” A 3-step filtering approach (Jones, 2004; Meade & Richardson, 1997) driven by prespecified inclusion and exclusion criteria was used across 4 separate searches to consolidate the article population. This process yielded a final article population of 199 peer-reviewed publications across 77 peer-reviewed outlets since 1968. Descriptive analyses of the participants and publications highlighted a steady increase in publication frequency over the past 5 decades, with the vast majority of research having been conducted in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. Athletes participating across 37 unique sports were represented across the articles, with most sampling athletes aged 11 to 15 and/or their parents. Nearly 60% of articles used quantitative methodologies, with an increase in qualitative work occurring over the past decade. UCINET software was used to identify the most prominent (i.e., widely cited) articles, as well as cohesive subgroups of closely linked articles in the literature. The use of citation network analysis in the present study proved useful in identifying knowledge gaps in the research on parent–child interactions in youth sport, thus highlighting potentially fruitful paths for future empirical efforts.

Full text

A Citation Network Analysis of Research on Parent⫺Child
Interactions in Youth Sport
Travis E. Dorsch, Matthew Vierimaa, and Juliana M. Plucinik
Utah State University
Citation network analysis is a systematic technique that affords the synthesis of
scholarship in a well-defined content area. In an effort to highlight the citation structure
of research on parent– child interactions in youth sport, multiple databases were
searched using all 12 combinations of the following keywords: (Level 1) “families,”
“parents,” “fathers,” and “mothers”; (Level 2) “children,” “adolescents,” and “ath-
letes”; and (Level 3) “sport.” A 3-step filtering approach (Jones, 2004;Meade &
Richardson, 1997) driven by prespecified inclusion and exclusion criteria was used
across 4 separate searches to consolidate the article population. This process yielded a
final article population of 199 peer-reviewed publications across 77 peer-reviewed
outlets since 1968. Descriptive analyses of the participants and publications highlighted
a steady increase in publication frequency over the past 5 decades, with the vast
majority of research having been conducted in the United States, the United Kingdom,
Canada, and Australia. Athletes participating across 37 unique sports were represented
across the articles, with most sampling athletes aged 11 to 15 and/or their parents.
Nearly 60% of articles used quantitative methodologies, with an increase in qualitative
work occurring over the past decade. UCINET software was used to identify the most
prominent (i.e., widely cited) articles, as well as cohesive subgroups of closely linked
articles in the literature. The use of citation network analysis in the present study proved
useful in identifying knowledge gaps in the research on parent– child interactions in
youth sport, thus highlighting potentially fruitful paths for future empirical efforts.
Keywords: citation network analysis, parent– child interactions, youth sport
Supplemental materials: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/spy0000140.supp
The review and synthesis of research is an
essential step in situating a field of knowledge
(Rayleigh, 1885). This systematic process is
defined by the analysis, appraisal, and assimila-
tion of the accumulated literature in a given
field (Thomas, Nelson, & Silverman, 2005).
Importantly, high-quality research syntheses go
beyond just a summary of research to offer
concrete conclusions and future directions for
study (Thomas et al., 2005). Historically, the
two most common forms of research synthesis
have been meta-analysis and qualitative review.
Meta-analysis (Glass, 1976) is a rigorous
quantitative approach to the synthesis of a spec-
ified literature. Specifically, meta-analyses use
detailed methods to guide a bracketed review of
the relevant literature and offer an integrated
analysis of results based on a standard metric
(i.e., effect size; Thomas et al., 2005). At pres-
ent, no meta-analyses have been conducted in
the literature examining parent– child interac-
tions in youth sport, in large part due to a lack
of substantial quantitative research as well as
the lack of a unifying phenomenon or construct
(e.g., parent involvement, parent– child relation-
ship, and child enjoyment).
This article was published Online First August 13, 2018.
Travis E. Dorsch, Department of Human Development
and Family Studies, Utah State University; Matthew Vieri-
maa, Department of Kinesiology and Health Science, Utah
State University; Juliana M. Plucinik, Department of Psy-
chology, Utah State University.
Correspondence concerning this article should be ad-
dressed to Travis E. Dorsch, Families in Sport Lab, Depart-
ment of Human Development and Family Studies, Utah
State University, 2905 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT 84322.
E-mail: travis.dorsch@usu.edu
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
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Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology
© 2018 American Psychological Association 2019, Vol. 8, No. 2, 145–162
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