ArticlePDF Available

Child-rearing in public spaces: the challenging dual-role relationships of parent–coaches and child–athletes of coaches in Swedish team sports

Taylor & Francis
Sport, Education and Society
Authors:

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the challenges of being either a parent–coach or a child–athlete of a coach within the context of Swedish youth sport. Conceptually, this paper draws on educational and sociological theories regarding changing perspectives in child-rearing. The results are based on data gathered from interviews with parent–coaches and child–athletes (age 13–15) of coaches involved in team sports. The results indicate that a range of meanings emerged through these unique sets of interactions, resulting in both positive and negative experiences for both children and their parents. To manage the perceived challenges, four behavioural strategies were used including fairness, distancing, defence and quitting. Overall, this study provides a deeper understanding of the challenges of these unique dual roles in relation to contemporary child-rearing perspectives.
Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at
http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=cses20
Sport, Education and Society
ISSN: 1357-3322 (Print) 1470-1243 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cses20
Child-rearing in public spaces: the challenging
dual-role relationships of parent–coaches and
child–athletes of coaches in Swedish team sports
Inger Eliasson
To cite this article: Inger Eliasson (2018): Child-rearing in public spaces: the challenging dual-
role relationships of parent–coaches and child–athletes of coaches in Swedish team sports, Sport,
Education and Society, DOI: 10.1080/13573322.2018.1528219
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2018.1528219
© 2018 The Author(s). Published by Informa
UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis
Group
Published online: 01 Oct 2018.
Submit your article to this journal
Article views: 9
View Crossmark data
Child-rearing in public spaces: the challenging dual-role
relationships of parentcoaches and childathletes of coaches in
Swedish team sports
Inger Eliasson
Department of Education, Umeå School of Sports Sciences, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden
ABSTRACT
The aim of this study was to examine the challenges of being either a
parentcoach or a childathlete of a coach within the context of
Swedish youth sport. Conceptually, this paper draws on educational and
sociological theories regarding changing perspectives in child-rearing.
The results are based on data gathered from interviews with parent
coaches and childathletes (age 1315) of coaches involved in team
sports. The results indicate that a range of meanings emerged through
these unique sets of interactions, resulting in both positive and negative
experiences for both children and their parents. To manage the
perceived challenges, four behavioural strategies were used including
fairness, distancing, defence and quitting. Overall, this study provides a
deeper understanding of the challenges of these unique dual roles in
relation to contemporary child-rearing perspectives.
ARTICLE HISTORY
Received 6 December 2017
Accepted 21 September 2018
KEYWORDS
Parenting; parents; coaches;
phenomenology; sport
pedagogy
Parents play a key and inuential role in childrens sport, and scholars are paying increasing attention
to the nature of parental involvement (Gottzén & Kremer-Sadlik, 2012; Haycock & Smith, 2014; Holt &
Knight, 2014; Stefansen, Smette, & Strandbu, 2018; Tamminen & Holt, 2012). Parents have a positive
impact: by introducing their children to sport, supporting their sport participation and by inuencing
childrens beliefs about physical activity (Coakley, 2015; Tamminen & Holt, 2012). However, recent
research also indicates that some parents are becoming more intrusive and protective of their chil-
dren in the sport context (Holt & Knight, 2014; Stefansen et al., 2018). According to Stefansen et al.
(2018), parents of children in sport want to be there for their children and relate childrens sport invol-
vement to future outcomes for their child. Moreover, a childs success or failure in sport may be seen
as a measure of parenting skills (Coakley, 2015; Johansen & Green, 2017; Wheeler & Green, 2014).
Further, Wheeler and Green (2014) noted that parents are investing earlier and more heavilyin chil-
drens sport activities today (p. 270). Collectively, parenting behaviours in sport may be understood as
an opportunity for parents to enact child-rearing in public spaces (Trussell & Shaw, 2012). According
to Trussell and Shaw (2012), organised sports for children are increasingly important to fathersand
mothersparenting roles and responsibilities related to child-rearing. A wealth of research has been
undertaken on coaching in youth sports and on parents on the side line separately (Holt & Knight,
2014). However, such a conceptualisation overlooks the fact that many parents are also coaches
and, in turn, some team members are the children of their coaches. Thus this study examined the
dual-role phenomenon of being a parentcoach or a childathlete of a coach, in childrens sport,
which an emerging body of literature has been identied as being problematic (Jowett, 2008;
© 2018 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
CONTACT Inger Eliasson inger.eliasson@umu.se
SPORT, EDUCATION AND SOCIETY
https://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2018.1528219
Jowett, Timson-Katchis, & Adams, 2007; Schmid, 2014; Schmid, Bernstein, Shannon, Rishell, & Grith,
2015; Weiss & Fretwell, 2005). As previously noted, the lack of research into dual-role relationships is
somewhat surprising given how common they are in childrens sports in Sweden and elsewhere. This
study makes an original contribution to our understanding of parenting behaviour and child-rearing
practices in sports; a study of this dual-role phenomenon has never been undertaken in any Scandi-
navian country.
The Scandinavian sport context
According to Curtis, Baer, and Grabb (2001), the levels of volunteering in the Scandinavian countries
are high compared to those of other nations, including the United States and the United Kingdom. It
is therefore reasonable to speak of a specic Scandinavian way to organise sport in voluntary organ-
isations(Seippel, 2010, p. 199; see also Tuastad, 2017). Scandinavia is a homogeneous region and its
shared historical, cultural and political traditions have shaped the way sport has developed in Sweden
(Peterson, 2008). Organised sport in Sweden is collected under one, national volunteer organisation,
the Swedish Sports Confederation; this organisation is a part of the Scandinavian sport model and has
strong support from the Swedish government (Norberg, 2011; Seippel, 2010). This voluntary sports
model results in almost no paid coaches for children in sport clubs aliated with the Swedish
Sport Confederation, which is why the clubs need to rely on parents to coach the children as well
as to run the sports club.
In Sweden, 80% of children aged 1216 participate in sports activities, which are mainly run by vol-
unteers, many of which are the parents of the children playing (Seippel, 2010). In North America, 84
90% of coaches are parentcoaches (Weiss & Fretwell, 2005) and there are also numerous parent
coaches in the United Kingdom (Jowett et al., 2007) and in Australia (Elliott & Drummond, 2017).
Parentcoaches are highly prevalent in Western countries; however, it is important to note that the
exact number of parentcoaches and childathletes of coaches in many countries remains unknown.
Previous research on dual roles
The few scholars that have specically aimed to examine the dual roles phenomenon argue that,
while such roles feature both positive and negative aspects, they are problematic in several ways.
The next section will outline conclusions from previous research related to positive aspects of dual
roles followed by the negative. Weiss and Fretwell (2005) examined the parentcoach phenomenon
from the theoretical framework of psychological perspectives and development theories by inter-
viewing six 12-year-old male soccer players at the competitive level, their parentcoaches and
some of their teammates. The positive aspects for the young players included experiences of
special attention, insider information, understanding and quality time with their parentcoaches.
The parentcoaches in Swimming also reported positive aspects, including pride toward their chil-
dren and opportunities to teach them skills and values. Jowett et al. (2007), using the framework
of psychological roles and interdependence theory, explored how parentcoaches and their child
athletes interacted in an individual sport. By interviewing six parentcoach and childathlete
dyads, Jowett et al. (2007) found that both the parentcoaches and the childathletes of coaches
experienced close relationships and positive interactions. In a narrative and retrospective psychologi-
cal study, Jowett (2008) interviewed a father and his daughter, who were formerly active at a national
level in track and eld in the United Kingdom, revealing that their relationship became very emotion-
ally close in a positive way.
The negative aspects according to parentcoaches include problems with their childrens rebel-
lious behaviour and/or that they either place higher expectations on their child or give them
limited recognition (Elliott & Drummond, 2017; Weiss & Fretwell, 2005). From the childrens perspec-
tive, the dual-role relationship brings negative treatment from the parentcoach resulting in criticism
regarding mistakes and pressure to perform (Weiss & Fretwell, 2005). One explanation for the
2I. ELIASSON
challenges is the diculty of separating the parentchild relationship from the coachathlete
relationship (Jowett, 2008; Jowett et al., 2007; Weiss & Fretwell, 2005). According to Schmid (2014),
there are blurred boundaries between these roles, which he concluded from a retrospective, narra-
tive, social-constructive study on experiences of eight female tennis players in the United States. Simi-
larly, Jowett (2008) showed that parentcoaches had the greatest diculty in limiting the coaching
role to the sport site.
Due to the dominance of the psychological theoretical framework (Jowett, 2008; Jowett et al.,
2007; Schmid, 2014; Schmid et al., 2015; Weiss & Fretwell, 2005), it is critical to draw further attention
to this phenomenon by applying an educational and sociological framework. Most of the previous
research used a retrospective design, focussed on individual sports and athletes who participated
at the elite level (Jowett, 2008; Jowett et al., 2007; Schmid, 2014; Schmid et al., 2015). By contrast,
this study focussed on young non-elite participants with ongoing involvement in two team sports
that no previous researchers have focussed on. This design will add to the prior knowledge about
team sport (Elliott & Drummond, 2017; Weiss & Fretwell, 2005).
To date, most research on this topic has been conducted within the context of the U.K. or the U.S.
However, Elliott and Drummond (2017) reported on parentcoaches in junior Australian football;
though, the results were only a by-productfrom a study of parenting in the sport (p. 69). This
research will expand the knowledge of the dual roles, within the Swedish context, using a unique
design that focuses on the strategies that the childathletes of coaches and parentcoaches use
to deal with their challenging experiences with regard to the dual roles. Holt and Knight (2014)
oered recommendations to parentcoaches about how to manage the dual roles in relation to
eective coaching. However, Holt and Knights recommendations are based on previous empirical
evidence and do not include the childrens perspectives about how children can manage dual-role
problems. This study lls this gap by also including the experiences and perspectives of children.
In sum, this study is important due to the dearth of research on the phenomenon of dual roles in
childrens sport, as well as the limited evidence on how parentcoaches and (especially) childath-
letes of coaches deal with the challenging aspects of the dual-role relationship.
The aim of this interpretative phenomenological study was to examine the phenomenon of being
a parentcoach or a childathlete of a coach in the Swedish childrens sport context and how this may
be understood from a child-rearing perspective. The research questions were as follows: (a) What
does it mean for a childathlete to have his or her parent as a coach, and what does it mean for a
parent to coach his or her own child in a team sport, in terms of advantages and challenges
related to the dual roles? (b) What strategies do parentcoaches and their childathletes use to
deal with the challenges that arise due to this relationship? (c) What might changing child-rearing
conditions mean for the interactions among adults and children in the sport as far as parent
coaches and their childathletes are concerned?
Theoretical framework
The theoretical framework that informs this study is based on the educational and sociological the-
ories of contemporary changes in child-rearing practices and on the cultural logic of parenting behav-
iour (Lareau, 2011; Smeyers, 2010; Vincent & Maxwell, 2016). For sake of clarity, the term child-rearing
(n.d.)isdened as the process of bringing up a child or children;parenting(n.d.) is more narrowly
dened as the activity of bringing up a child as a parent.
Within educational theory, Smeyers (2010) argued that some radical societal changes have taken
place recently, leading to changes in the relationship between parents and children that have
seemed to cause considerable diculties related to child-rearing. One aspect of this change is the
radical pluralism that has swept the world and led family members to increasingly behave according
to individual interests (Lareau, 2011; Smeyers, 2010). Furthermore, Smeyers (2010) discussed how
worldwide initiatives in child-rearing have contributed to a tendency to increasingly hold parents
accountable for child-rearing within society. Vincent and Maxwell (2016) also argued that parents
SPORT, EDUCATION AND SOCIETY 3
today are moving towards a normalisation of the parenting strategy of cultivating talent in a concerted
fashion to oer adequate child-rearing and to provide children with the best possible childhood and
future. Lareau (2011), explained: when parents worry about how their children will get ahead, they are
increasingly determined to make sure that their children are not excluded from any opportunity that
might eventually contribute to their advancement(p. 5). According to Lareau (2011), the emerging cul-
tural logic of parenting behaviour is framed by two types of behaviours. The rst type involves planned
strategies for concerted cultivation; this includes fostering childrens talents through organised leisure
activities. The second type involves behaviour regarding the accomplishment of natural growth, which
includes ensuring that the childrens basic needs, including being loved, are met.
This discussion is also growing among sport scientists. Coakley (2015) described an emerging neo-
liberal view in which parents feel solely responsible for controlling and socialising their children and
for the childrens future opportunities (cf. Johansen & Green, 2017). According to Trussell and Shaw
(2012), parents clearly believe that giving children opportunities to participate in sports may help
prepare children with basic skills and behaviour needed for their adult years. Parents today often
spend a great deal of time and money on this task, which is seen as an appropriate investment (Ste-
fansen et al., 2018; Wheeler & Green, 2014). For this, some parents are willing to make nancial, phys-
ical, and emotional sacrices, even when this inuences their family life negatively (Trussell & Shaw,
2012). Fathers (and increasingly, mothers) use organised sports for parenting in public, beyond the
home environment. This public parenting process includes possibilities to evaluate and criticise
other parentsactions or non-actions in relation to good parenting as well as to childrens opportu-
nities and future. In the Swedish context, it is also shown that parents highly value their own chil-
drens best interests in the outcomes of team sport participation (Eliasson, 2015).
Furthermore, the study is ontologically and epistemologically grounded in interpretative and phe-
nomenological research traditions with qualitative methodology (Creswell, 1998,2003; Jones, 2015;
Ryba, 2008). In this research, knowledge is seen as the subjective experiences of participants that are
constructed at the individual level in a societal context, rather than as a xed objective thingthat can
be measured (Jones, 2015). Instead, the complexity and multiple realities of the subject are in focus.
This means that the perceptions of the participants are seen as evidence that can answer the research
questions. According to Jones (2015), this stance of interpretivism uses words, statements and other
non-numerical measures collected from the viewpoint of the participants.
Ryba (2008) advocates for the use of phenomenology when researching children because this
method stems primarily from the unique view of lived experience. This philosophical approach
allows the researcher to gain an insiders perspective to uncover explanations through interpretation
of the research; this is why qualitative data was deemed appropriate to collect.
Method
The research approach is empirical, and the result is based on data from individual interviews with chil-
dren and parents. The research design is aimed at including the childs dual-role experiences (child and
athlete) as well as the parents (parent and coach), all with regard to a dyadic sport-and-family relation-
ship. One argument for this design is that it enables giving reciprocal attention to social interactions, as
well as to the various participantsexperiences and their consciousness of what the phenomenon
brings to their lives (Creswell, 2003; Ryba, 2008). For this phenomenological stance, this means that
the participants necessarily needed to consist of both childathletes and parents who acted as their
sport coaches. Another argument is that the analysis of data from the dyadic sport-and-family relation-
ship is relevant to a discussion in relation of contemporary child-rearing theories.
Selections of participants and ethical considerations
This studys purposeful sampling technique of criterion sampling works well for phenomenological
studies that are limited to participants who have experience with the phenomenon under study
4I. ELIASSON
(Creswell, 1998). One criterion was that the participants had to have been part of the sport activity in a
dual-role relationship for at least 3 years to ensure that they had enough experience to reect on their
strategies for dealing with the challenges. Another criterion was that the parentcoaches and their
childathletes actually had to be involved in those roles at the time of the research, so as to avoid
retrospective limitations and therefore strengthen the originality of the study. A third criterion was
that they all had to provide informed consent. Fourth, the parents and children had to come from
the same family in a dyadic relation.
This research projects sample included 13 participants, 7 parentcoaches and 6 childathletes of
those parentcoaches. The coaches who participated had coached their 13- to 15-year-old children
for 38 years.
Table 1 shows the ages of the children, the gender of the participants and the years in which they
have held the dual roles. The participants were from 6 teams at 2 well-established sport clubs in a city
with 120,000 inhabitants in the north of Sweden. For this research project, the selected sports were
ice hockey and oorball because they are common for both children and parents to be involved in
(Swedish Research Council for Sport Science, 2017).
The study followed the Swedish Research Councils ethical guidelines (2011) and was conducted
with ethical sensitivity and with regard to the importance of creating good relationships with the par-
ticipants. Alderson (2004) argues that it is important to be aware of power relations between the
researchers and the participants throughout the research process. This includes careful consideration
of power relations between adults and children when planning the research, collecting data, inter-
preting data and reporting results (Alderson, 2004). The research design was carefully developed
to reduce the risk of any negative consequences for the informants. To obtain participants and
their consent to conduct the study, the chairperson of the sport club board for one oorball club
and the youth sport manager of one ice hockey club were approached by email. Second, the
suggested coaches from teams in the clubs, with children between 13 and 15 years old, were con-
tacted by email and telephone. All participants were informed about the studys aims, research pro-
cedures and ethical guidelines which included that their answers would not be shared with their
parentcoaches, their children or anyone else. The parentcoaches who all agreed to participate
were asked to inform their children about the study and ask if they would like to participate or
not. Due to the power relation between an unknown researcher and children (Alderson, 2004), the
parents were given the opportunity to be the rst to ask their child to participate in one interview,
which all but one of the children were willing to do. All of the participants were given additional
verbal information about ethical rights in easy and respectful ways before the interviews were con-
ducted. The design did not allow parents to exert inuence or control over childrens responses
during interviews when conducted separately.
Data collection
In line with the phenomenological design, semi-structured life world interviews were used to obtain
data to answer the research questions. The aim of this method was to obtain descriptions of the life
Table 1. Data on parentcoaches (n= 7) and coacheschildren (n= 6) participating in the study.
Sport Parentcoach
Gender of
coach Coachs child
Age of
child
Gender of
child
Parentcoach and coach child
experience/year
Floorball Parentcoach 1 Female Coach child D 14 Son 7 years
Floorball Parentcoach 2 Male Coach child E 15 Daughter 4 years
Floorball Parentcoach 3 Male 15 Daughter
a
3 years
Floorball Parentcoach 4 Male Coach child A 13 Daughter 6 years
Ice hockey Parentcoach 5 Male Coach child B 15 Son 6 years
Ice hockey Parentcoach 6 Male Coach child C 14 Daughter 78 years
Ice hockey Parentcoach 7 Male Coach child F. 14 Son 7 years
a
Corresponding coachs childathlete not participating.
SPORT, EDUCATION AND SOCIETY 5
world of the interviewee in order to interpret the meaning of the described phenomena(Kvale &
Brinkmann, 2015, p. 6). All participants were interviewed individually, in places of their choice: at a
sport grounds, at a parentcoachs workplace, at a family home or at a university. I, the main
researcher, interviewed all participants from the ice hockey club, and an assistant interviewed the
participants from the oorball club. We asked the parentcoaches and their childathletes a series
of similar key questions, each of which was adjusted to the informants role and age. Questions
were developed in relation to ve themes. The themes were (a) background, (b) advantages and chal-
lenges, (c) strategies to deal with the dual roles and relationships on the team, (d) meaning and
inuence, and (e) nal questions.
The parents and children came together to the site for their interviews, but they were always in
separate rooms during the interviews. We conducted the interviews on a one-obasis that was suit-
able to the research design, with prepared questions that could be answered all at once; the ques-
tions did not build on a longitudinal approach which may have limited the possibility of eliciting in-
depth descriptions of experiences. However, according to Dickson-Swift, James, and Liamputtong
(2008, p. 8), it is not possible to state whether one-oencounterinterviews are better or worse
than multiple-encounter interviews. Dickson-Swift et al. did argue that the quality of the data col-
lected instead depends on the researchers ability to develop an intimate and ongoing relationship
with the participant(p. 8). It was therefore important for us to develop a relationship based on reci-
procity, trust and personal involvement (Ryba, 2008).
We took these possible limitations of one-ointerviews and power balance into consideration
from the rst contact and throughout the whole interview process. To ensure we collected rich
experiences from the participants, we discussed the approach in advance and determined how to
best build relationships and neutralise the power hierarchy (Jones, 2015; Ryba, 2008). For example,
we clearly informed each interviewee about the studys ethics, aims and approximate time frame,
weeks before the interviews in an easily understandable manner. At the beginning of each interview,
we pronounced that we were interested in his or her own experiences and that there were no right or
wrong answers; to make the participants feel relaxed and open by understanding that we were not
going to judge their answers. During the interviews, we used easily language and expressed an inter-
est in the interviewees through alert listening and expressions of understanding (Dickson-Swift et al.,
2008). At the end of the interviews, we made it clear that they could contact us at any time if they had
any questions. Each interview lasted between 15 and 60 min, and a third party transcribed the audio
recordings verbatim.
Thematic analysis
According to Braun and Clarke (2006), thematic analysis may be used to report experiences, mean-
ings and the reality of participants(p. 86). Further, thematic analysis is a method for identifying, ana-
lysing and reporting patterns within data(Braun & Clarke, 2006, p. 79) that involves six phases of
analysis in a recursive process. The analysis of the data followed the inductive thematic analysis
guidelines oered by Braun and Clarke (2006) and was based on meaning condensation and
meaning interpretation (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2015). An inductive approach means that the themes
identied were strongly linked to the data.
The rst phase was to carefully read the complete interview transcripts to get a sense of the whole
and of the important details. During the second phase, initial codes were generated by assessing the
natural meaning units of each sentence in a systematic fashion across the entire data set, and then
compressed each sentence into a shorter statement on the transcripts. The third phase was about
searching for potential themes and gathering all the statements relevant to each of the themes.
During the fourth phase, all of these themes were reviewed to check if they worked in relation to
the coded extracts and the entire data set. The fth phase included to generate clear denitions
for each theme. Final themes and representative quotes were collected in the form of tables
related to the research questions specied by advantages, challenges (diculties), interactions and
6I. ELIASSON
inuences of the dual-role relationships and of strategies the participants used to deal with those
dual roles (for example, see Table 2).
The sixth phase included to conduct deeper interpretation to interrogate the meaning of the units
in terms of the broader context of changing child-rearing condition and in response to the previous
research on dual roles in sport. The last step involved sorting out the themes of the results and writing
the report.
Results
Advantages of dual roles
To socialise and have fun with their child and with other children is one central advantage expressed
by several parentcoaches. Sport seems to give parentcoaches opportunities to spend time with
their children on a regular basis, within an organised structure, which leads to a certain quality of
their relationship. One coach expressed, I can be with my child quite simply, it is quality time
I have chosen to socialise with my children through sports(Coach 4). Coaches also describe
how it creates valuable life memories with their child: We share many memories together, very posi-
tive memories, which I carry with me. This is what we have done together(7). The role of a parent
coach also brings feelings of contributing to the childs development: You can follow their develop-
ment both as humans and as athletes; thats what I think is great fun(3) and It is a privilege, I would
say, to be with the kids and see their development and get to rejoice in their success and progress(5).
Some of the advantages of children having their parent as a coach include the feeling of safety
and support, that they have fun together with their parents, and that sport gives them opportunities
to be close with their parent. One child said, Maybe you feel safer when you are younger, if you have
your parents with you(A), and another said, It is also fun: You can, like, talk a lot about the team and
such, you can discuss after the games, and that is fun. Thus we become closer to each other(E). Prac-
tical support from parents is also appreciated: If you are at an away game, it might be nice to have
him with you, because you do have a lot of bags he can also carry things(B), and She has an eye on
things(D). One child also thought coachchildren may become better players due to this
relationship:
Yes, I actually think that I have become a better oorball player with my father as my coach, because he puts
higher demands on me. He tells me to sharpen and I give my best and I become better. (A)
Challenges of dual roles
Parentcoaches experience challenges in relation to other parents as well as in relation to their
child. One of the most obvious problems for parentcoaches is dealing with issues of fairness. It
seems to be highly important for them to clearly display fairness and to prove they are not
Table 2. A part of a table generated by Braun and Clarke (2006) thematic analysis of challenges experienced by parentcoaches.
Thematised meaning of
experiences by parent
coaches
Description and variation of meaning
within themes Quotes by interviewee
Diculties in relation to their
child
Children may have diculty taking
feedback and criticism from parent
coaches
Stronger demands from own child
I can really see how they think –“you can forget that, I
will do exactly the opposite”’. (5)She will have a
tougher time. (4)
Diculties in relation to
other childrens parents
Wants to avoid accusation of
favouritism.
Conicts and even attacks on their
child through other parents
Nobody should accuse you of favouring [my child]; in my
case, it may be the other way around(6)Some players
got money from their parents if they attacked a coachs
childathlete [physically on the ice] its been the
worst. (7)
SPORT, EDUCATION AND SOCIETY 7
giving their child any advantages: Nobody should be able to accuse me of favouring [my child]; in
my case, it may rather be the other way around(6). One coach added, I have fears that people
will think I favour my children; thats what Im really trying to be clear not to show, which is why I
treat my children much tougher(4). Some parentcoaches also reported they give their child less
praise to avoid suspicions. This shows that when parentcoaches fear accusations of favouritism
from the other parents, they may exaggerate their behaviour towards their child, which may
make it even harder for the parentcoachs child, especially regarding the social behaviour. One
parentcoach explained, If they behave badly against one teammate or continue to play after
the referee blows the whistle or just say stupid things, then I am a bit harder on my own child
(6). On the other hand, there are also parentcoaches who confess they sometimes give their
child advantages: You dont go to a tournament without your son, so of course he has been
rewarded this season. Blood is thicker than water(5). This problem is obvious in interactions
with other parents. One parentcoach said, They have comments on everything we do ,
and the worst of all, some players have got money from their parents if they attacked a
coachs childathlete [on the ice](7). This interaction seems to have led to physical assault by
another child towards the coachs childathlete where the assault was explained to be set up
by another parent. One coach said that coaches are conscious when they give their child advan-
tages and indicated that this may be the normalised cultural logic of parenting today: Today I
think it is [done] consciously, because it is my child who should get ahead(5).
Challenges related to interactions between parentcoaches and their childathlete were about
the diculties for the childathlete to follow parentcoachesinstructions or to accept corrections
of their behaviour without becoming irritated, angry or deant. One coach explained, I really can
see how they think: you can forget that, I will do exactly the opposite”’ (5). Another explained,
He easily gets irritated towards me, and he doesnt listen to me as he does to my coaching col-
leagues(1).
The challenges that children experience highly correspond to the challenges reported from the
parentcoaches. For example, fairness is also a challenge related to the dual roles from the childs
perspective. Mainly, this concerns what others think about the potential benets the coachchild
might experience and obtain. However, this is denied by many children: If you would have asked
someone else, then it would certainly be yes, he gets more time to play or something, but it
is not like that. Others believe it, but it is not so for me(B). On the other hand, one child (F) explained
that he might have the benet of taking part in a few more ice hockey games during the season.
Children also express that they nd it dicult to deal with instructions from the parentcoach
without getting angry:
Yes I may think that I was right, and he may not think that then I get mad at him. But if another coach
would have said it, then I would certainly not have been as angry. It becomes a dierent thing when ones
father tells you. (B)
A boy said about his mothercoach, I can yell at her more than I do to other coaches(D). The chil-
drens way of talking back to the parents may be understood as a response to the fact that they per-
ceive that the parentcoaches are unfair to them. One coachchild said, If my friends on the team are
joking around Its very easy to follow them, and then dad gets very mad at me [not the
others](A). Another child said, He argues with me more often than he does with the others, then
I get irritated and it feels like you are worse than the others(C).
The dual roles may have more or less severe negative consequences for the child depending on
how the relationship evolves. It was evident from a childs statement that the childs sporting devel-
opment stagnated because of the unsolved problems with the dual roles:
I was probably the best on skates on my team, I had quite a good technique, and then when I realised I could
argue with my father, I stopped kind of making an eort. It aected me after a while I just messed around
and did not care when my father said something. At that time, it was like that; we did not have a very good
relationship. (B)
8I. ELIASSON
Despite the negative aspects expressed, most of the participants want to continue as parentcoaches
or as coachchildren because of all the positive experiences. One coach concluded, I would really
recommend doing this, because it is a fantastic experience to have the opportunity to be with young-
sters and watch them grow and see their happiness(3).
Strategies to deal with the challenges
There are four behavioural strategies found which the participants use to manage the challenges
described. The strategies are (a) the distance strategy for parentcoaches and coachchildren, (b)
the fairness strategy for parentcoaches, (c) the defence strategy for coachchildren and (d) the quit-
ting strategy for parentcoaches.
The only shared strategy used by both the parentcoaches and coachchildren was the distance
strategy. This strategy is based on parentcoaches and coachchildren trying to distance themselves
from their roles and each other by separating their roles of being a parent and a child from being a
coach and an athlete. The participants explained how they try not to mix the roles in the sporting
context and in family life. One coach explained, When taking on the equipment, well, then you
are the coach, then its not dad anymore(6). A child discussed what advice to give other coachchil-
dren: Think, its not your father, when you are at training; think he is a regular coach(F). It may seem
most unnatural, especially for younger children, to pretend they do not have this relationship, which
made me ask how they manage to think like that:
I try the best I can, but sometimes it can slip out, Daddy. For, it is like a little dicult anyway. Now, I have
learned quite well to try to not thinkof him as my dad. I regret that I didnt think like this back then. (B)
This quote highlights that it is also a learning process to understand how to deal with the situation,
which may take years. Parentcoaches also use the distance strategy when they communicate with
their child. One way to avoid negative reactions from their child is by using other coaches as
mediators for messages to their child: We have solved it so that if I see something during a match
or training, which I think he must correct, then I go past another coach and say, Can you talk to
him about this?”’ (5).
Children also distance themselves physically from their parentcoach to deal with their own
reactions:
Sometimes, dad wants us to talk. I get just annoyed, and then I go away towards another direction But he
shouts at me, so I must show that I am interested and listen to him. (A)
This may also be one way for children to deal with feelings about the parentssometimes exagger-
ated demands on them. Distancing themselves from the roles is difcult, for both parties, which may
be explained by their innate relationship, which they will always have.
Another strategy used by coaches is the fairness strategy, which means they try to express equal
fairness towards all children. Other parents and children seem to blame the familial relationship for
unfair treatment towards other children on the team. To deal with the opinions of other parents and
children, parentcoaches express their strong need to display fair behaviour towards all children on
the team. With this strategy, parentcoaches try to minimise any accusation of being unfair. However,
this strategy leads to another problem that must be dealt with, which is that the parentcoaches
sometimes use tougher behaviour towards their child, as described earlier. Therefore, this strategy
may lead to the opposite of its intention, where unequal behaviours are reinforced and the chal-
lenges are increased for the coachchild. The parentcoaches were aware of this and expressed
that they must restrain themselves: I must bite my lips at times or other coaches can tell me,
Now you are too tough with her, you have to cool down”’ (4).
The parentcoacheschildathlete seems to end up in an exposed or vulnerable situation due to
the parentcoachesdiculties dealing with the two roles and their relationship with third-party
parents. A specic strategy for coachchildren to deal with the exposed situation is to apply the
defence strategy. When the parentcoaches are working with their child giving sport-related
SPORT, EDUCATION AND SOCIETY 9
instructions or behavioural admonitions, which may be exaggerated compared to their interactions
with other children on the team, the coachchild may defy or be angry with the parentcoach. One
interpretation is that the parentcoaches may be too hard, unfair, or give too much attention to the
child, which makes the coachchild want to defend himself/herself. The defence strategy may be
enacted by doing the opposite of what a parent says or by responding to the parent angrily. One
boy explained, I can be quite angry with him, because I think dierently, so it is much easier to
talk to another coach(B). A parentcoach said, He dees [me] just to show me be quiet, mom”’
(1). Children seem to want the parentcoach to back o:I tell him, I already know that, and I
become angry(C). The defence strategy may result in long-term negative consequences. When B,
a 15-year-old boy playing ice hockey, reected over his use of this strategy, he found that he
deed his father as the coach during many of his younger years at the rink. He explained that he
regrets that he did not understand this complex situation when he was younger and that he now
understands that it is better to use the distance strategy instead of the defence strategy:
Then, when I realised that, I would stop focussing on that he was my dad, so it went much better again with
hockey. I regret that I did not think like this before, but now theres nothing I can do about it. So Ive actually
lost a lot. (B)
A third strategy for coaches to deal with dual-role challenges is to quit coaching their child,
referred to as the quitting strategy. One coach explained when interactions among children,
coaches and other parents became too negative for him as a parentcoach and for his child. The situ-
ation refers to when the other parents asked their children to attack the coachs childathlete phys-
ically on the ice. The parentcoach explained, Its been the worst I will quit; it is not worth it
anymore(7). The parentcoach highlighted that the dual roles are not something that can be
hidden, forgotten or distanced from completely, and he revealed that the child might be in the
most vulnerable situation when he said: He has not chosen me as his father(7). The quitting strategy
seems to be applied as the last measure when the situation has gotten out of control, when the dis-
advantages may not be understood, or when the situation due to the dual role relationship is per-
ceived too dicult to deal with, especially for their child. The situation has become unmanageable
for the parent to continue being involved as a coach.
Discussion and conclusion
The ndings oer important insights into the challenges experienced by the dual roles. In particular,
the ndings reveal new knowledge regarding childrens experiences and what strategies they use to
deal with negative situations compared with parentcoaches.
According to the results, there are positive aspects for both children and parents of being involved
together in team sports. The children of coaches generally feel that they are positively supported by
their parentcoaches. Both children and parents argue that sport gives opportunities to socialise and
have fun together which creates positive memories during childhood. Further, the parentcoach has
the possibility to create good conditions for their childs development providing them both short-
term and long-term benets. The positive interactions of close relationship are also evident from pre-
vious studies in other contexts, especially in individual sports (Jowett, 2008; Jowett et al., 2007) and
among male athletes and their fathers (Elliott & Drummond, 2017; Weiss & Fretwell, 2005). Sport is a
place where children may get the chance to enjoy performing, receive attention and have their ath-
letic skills publicly assessed(Lareau, 2011, p. 113). Due to the fact that there is also growing evidence
that sport is an arena in which parents are becoming increasingly involved (Stefansen et al., 2018;
Wheeler & Green, 2014), this also may mean that parents will be willing to take on volunteer work.
When it benets parents with respect to their responsibility of child-rearing (Coakley, 2015; Johansen
& Green, 2017; Trussell & Shaw, 2012), parentsinterests in coaching may be strengthened. Taken
together, having parentcoaches in childrens sports in Sweden has positive eects for parents
and children with some exceptions, and therefore, it would be unwise to deny parents the
10 I. ELIASSON
opportunity to be coaches. However, due to parentsincreased individual interests and priorities for
cultivating the talents of their children, it is important to be aware of the risk of a range of challenges
related to changing child-rearing practices, of parenting and the dual roles in organised leisure activi-
ties (Lareau, 2011; Trussell & Shaw, 2012; Vincent & Maxwell, 2016).
This study showed several challenges with the dual roles based on the experiences that parent
coaches and coachchildren expressed. The pressure from interactions among children, coaches and
parents concerning fairness is obviously problematic regardless of team sport context, which might
become even stronger due to the child-rearing changes taking place in society (Smeyers, 2010). The
pressure from all parents may increase when they become protective and seek to ensure a pathway
for their children to succeed within sport and more generally with respect to acquiring skills needed
for future possibilities. Moreover, this pressure may be exacerbated when parents assume increased
responsibility in child-rearing (Coakley, 2015; Lareau, 2011; Wheeler & Green, 2014). Where this is the
case, one can expect parents to be at the sport site to monitor their childs opportunities according to
personal child-rearing interests (Lareau, 2011; Smeyers, 2010) as well as to take the public opportunity
to criticise other parents for poor actions towards their children (Trussell & Shaw, 2012). It can be
expected that parents will use sport more explicitly to position themselves as oering adequate
child-rearing in public spaces through concerted cultivation (Lareau, 2011; Vincent & Maxwell, 2016).
Turning to what strategies the participants were using to deal with the challenges, the analysis
showed that the coachs childathletes used two strategies (distance and defence), and the
parentcoaches used three (distance, fairness and quitting). There is, however, not one straightfor-
ward strategy which solves the challenges; instead, the analysis reveals complex behavioural patterns
from a learning process continuing over years to understand how to deal with the innate relation-
ships and challenging interactions regarding the dual-role situation. However, the distance strategy
seems to be the best available strategy for both parents and children and was the only one in
common. This dual-role relationship is especially dicult to handle, though, for the coachs childath-
letes when they rely on the distance strategy. As a result, it means they need to temporarily suspend
or ignore their innate parentchild relationship and only act from an athletes perspective (and, there-
fore, not from a childs perspective) when at the sport site.
The results of the study show diculties with separating the roles between being a coach, a
parent, a child and an athlete. The distance strategy and the demands on separating the roles
lead to interactions which may certainly be unsynchronised in time between adults and children,
which may be especially confusing for a younger coachs childathlete to understand. Schmid
(2014) and Jowett (2008) also pointed out similar problems.
One important consideration is the risk that the childs perspective may be supressed in sport with
use of the distance strategy given that the child is not allowed to acknowledge their dual role as both
child and athlete. Children who strongly value having fun with friends in a sport environment may
tend towards behaving in line with the role of the child than the role of an athlete. This discussion
can be related to what Schmid (2014) discussed as the blurred boundaries. However, the distance
strategy seems to work well when parentcoaches use this approach to forward messages to their
child mediated by other coaches. This means the parentcoaches and coachchildren distance them-
selves from each other physically and not only in relation to their roles; this has not been shown in
any prior research.
The defence strategy, which children use when they need to act against the parentcoaches
behaviour, seems to be less eective for the child to use than the distance strategy. The data indicate
that the parentcoach will not accept the opinions of the coachchild easily without arguments. This
imbalance of power and subordination of children in sport complicates the situation (Eliasson, 2015)
and reinforces the importance of reducing adult power and control in order to stimulate positive
relationships (Jowett et al., 2007; Schmid et al., 2015).
The fairness strategy, which parentcoaches use to show that they are treating all children fairly, is
also problematic. Fairness seems to be important when coaching a group of children. However, as
shown in the study, it is dicult to reach the goals of fairness for parentcoaches behaviour,
SPORT, EDUCATION AND SOCIETY 11
which sometimes ends up being much harder and therefore unfair towards their own child which is
also a problem in other sport contexts (Elliott & Drummond, 2017; Weiss & Fretwell, 2005). One par-
ticularly problematic situation is when parentcoachesperceptions do not match how others per-
ceive the results of their behaviour in the matters of justice and fair treatment of the children.
Fairness is a complex concept, and if there is no shared understanding of how to assess fairness
neither the coach, nor others can assess if he/she is being fair. Parents on the side line may exagger-
ate their interpretation of unfair treatment by parentcoaches as part of a strategy of concerted cul-
tivation in order to ensure their children get the most out of their time in sport (Vincent & Maxwell,
2016). However, there is also a risk for parentcoaches to fall into the use of their power to favour
their own children because they are also parents under the pressure of being able to provide the
best possible childhood to their child (Lareau, 2011; Vincent & Maxwell, 2016).
To conclude, there is no nal solution to the challenges with the dual roles. Parentcoaches and
coachs childathletes try their best to use some strategies to deal with the challenges; however, the
strategies may lead to new problems and a need for new strategies. Unlike the results from the U.K.
swimming context where parentcoaches and coachchildren agreed on contracts about how to
manage the dual relationships (Jowett et al., 2007)there seems to be more unconscious trial-and-
error management behaviour in the interactions in the Swedish context. It is vital to educate and
support parentcoaches in the challenges they may encounter due to these dual roles to increase
the quality of childrens sporting experiences and to reduce any damages that may occur to the familial
parentchild relationship (Schmid, 2014). Finally, it is of major importance involving children in learn-
ing about the challenges they may encounter due to these specic dual roles rather than only viewing
these situations from the adult perspective. For future research, there is a need to balance limited data
from female coaches and female children, which also is a limitation of this study.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and the participants for sharing
their experiences.
Disclosure statement
No potential conict of interest was reported by the author.
Funding
The research was funded by the Swedish Research Council for Sport Science and supported by Umeå School of Sports
Sciences.
References
Alderson, P. (2004). Ethics. In S. Fraser, V. Lewis, S. Ding, M. Kellett, & C. Robinson (Eds.), Doing research with children and
young people (pp. 97112). London: Sage.
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology,3(2), 77101.
Child-rearing. (n.d.). In Oxford dictionaries. Retrieved from https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/denition/child-rearing.
Coakley, J. (2015). Sports in society: Issues and controversies. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Creswell, J. (1998). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among ve traditions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Creswell, J. (2003). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage.
Curtis, J. E., Baer, D. E., & Grabb, E. G. (2001). Nations of joiners: Explaining voluntary association membership in demo-
cratic societies. American Sociological Review,66, 783805.
Dickson-Swift, V., James, E. L., & Liamputtong, P. (2008). Undertaking sensitive research in the health and social sciences:
Managing boundaries, emotions and risks. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Eliasson, I. (2015). In dierent sports worlds: Socialisation among children, coaches, and parents in girlsand boysfoot-
ball teams. European Journal for Sport and Society,12(2), 187214.
12 I. ELIASSON
Elliott, S. K., & Drummond, M. J. N. (2017). The experience of parent/coaches in youth sport: A qualitative exploration of
junior Australian football. Journal of Amateur Sport,479. Retrieved from www.jamsport.org, 180301.
Gottzén, L., & Kremer-Sadlik, T. (2012). Fatherhood and youth sports: A balancing act between care and expectations.
Gender and Society,26(4), 639664.
Haycock, D., & Smith, A. (2014). A family aair? Exploring the inuence of childhood sport socialisation on young adults
leisure-sport careers in north-west England. Leisure Studies,33(3), 285304.
Holt, N. L., & Knight, C. J. (2014). Parenting in youth sport: From research to practice. London: Routledge.
Johansen, P. F., & Green, K. (2017). Its alpha omega for succeeding and thriving: Parents, children and sporting cultiva-
tion in Norway. Sport, Education and Society,14.doi:10.1080/13573322.2017.1401991
Jones, I. (2015). Research methods for sports studies. New York: Routledge.
Jowett, S. (2008). Outgrowing the familial coachathlete relationship. International Journal of Sport Psychology,39(1), 2040.
Jowett, S., Timson-Katchis, M., & Adams, R. (2007). Too close for comfort? Dependence in the dual role parent/coach
child/athlete relationship. International Journal of Coaching Science,1(1), 5777.
Kvale, S., & Brinkmann, S. (2015). Interviews: Learning the craft of qualitative research interviewing (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage.
Lareau, A. (2011). Unequal childhoods: Class, race and family life (2nd ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press.
Norberg, J. R. (2011). A contract reconsidered? Changes in the Swedish states relation to the sports movement.
International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics,3(3), 311325.
Parenting. (n.d.). In Oxford dictionaries. Retrieved from https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/denition/parenting.
Peterson, T. (2008). The professionalization of sport in the Scandinavian countries. Retrieved from http://www.
idrottsforum.org/articles/peterson/peterson080220.html.
Ryba, T. V. (2008). Researching children in sport: Methodological reections. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology,20(3),
334348.
Schmid, O. N. (2014). Its not just your dad and its not just your coach …”: The dual-role relationship in female tennis players
(Unpublished doctoral dissertation). West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia.
Schmid, O. N., Bernstein, M., Shannon, V. R., Rishell, C., & Grith, C. (2015). Its not just your dad, its not just your coach
…”: The dual-relationship in female tennis players. The Sport Psychologist,29(3), 224236.
Seippel, Ø. (2010). Professionals and volunteers: On the future of a Scandinavian sport model. Sport in Society,13(2), 199211.
Smeyers, P. (2010). Child rearing in the risksociety: On the discourse of the right and the best interests of the child.
Educational Theory,60(3), 271284.
Stefansen, K., Smette, I., & Strandbu, Å. (2018). Understanding the increase in parentsinvolvement in organized youth
sports. Sport, Education and Society,23(2), 162172. doi:10.1080/13573322.2016.1150834
Swedish Research Council. (2011). Good research practice: Report from the Swedish Research Councils expert group on
ethics. Stockholm, Sweden: Swedish Research Council.
Swedish Research Council for Sport Science. (2017). Statens stöd till idrotten.Uppföljning 2016. [State support to sport.
Evaluation 2016]. Stockholm, Sweden: Centrum för Idrottsforskning.
Tamminen, K. A., & Holt, N. L. (2012). Adolescent athleteslearning about coping and the roles of parents and coaches.
Psychology of Sport and Exercise,13(1), 6979.
Trussell, D. E., & Shaw, S. M. (2012). Organized youth sport and parenting in public and private spaces. Leisure Sciences,34
(5), 377394.
Tuastad, S. (2017). The Scandinavian sport model: Myths and realities. Norwegian football as a case study. Soccer & Society,
119. doi:10.1080/14660970.2017.1323738
Vincent, C., & Maxwell, C. (2016). Parenting priorities and pressures: Furthering understanding of concerted cultivation.
Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education,37(2), 269281.
Weiss, M., & Fretwell, D. (2005). The parentcoach/childathlete relationship in youth sport. Research Quarterly for Exercise
and Sport,76(3), 286305.
Wheeler, S., & Green, K. (2014). Parenting in relation to childrens sports participation: Generational changes and potential
implications. Leisure Studies,33(3), 267284.
SPORT, EDUCATION AND SOCIETY 13
... A lack of women coaches, and particularly women coaches of color, reinforces the marginalization of individuals from more diverse backgrounds and provides few role models for women athletes (LaVoi & Leberman, 2015). Though substantial research has examined the experiences of women in sport leadership roles, previous research has focused primarily on elite-level sport (Allen & Shaw, 2009, 2013Burton, 2015;Dixon & Sagas, 2007;Hoffman, 2010;Knoppers, Haan, et al., 2021;Norman, 2010aNorman, , 2010bNorman, , 2012Norman et al., 2018;Rankin-Wright et al., 2016, 2019Schull & Kihl, 2019), had samples that were primarily White (Norman, 2010a;Rankin-Wright et al., 2016), or included both men and women in the sample (Rankin-Wright et al., 2019). Furthermore, scholars have called for research that acknowledges intersectionality as a core component of the experience (Carter-Francique & Olushola, 2016;LaVoi et al., 2019;Shaw & Frisby, 2006), and that examines the experience through a multilayered model . ...
... Though these issues appear to be primarily at elite levels of coaching (Clarkson et al., 2019), further research indicates that responsibilities related to youth sport participation fall disproportionately on mothers (Legg & Rose, 2022). Thus, it would seem logical that women coaches at the recreational level may also find challenges in balancing coaching responsibilities with parenting responsibilities-especially since most recreational coaches are also parents (Eliasson, 2019). ...
... Evidence also points to these same gender stereotypes manifesting at the recreational sport level (Clarkson et al., 2019). Coaches of color also described exclusionary cultures where Whiteness was the norm, and they felt they needed to deemphasize their ethnic heritage to be successful (Rankin-Wright et al., 2016, 2019. ...
Article
Coaches play an instrumental role in the experiences of youth sport participants. Though girls participate in youth sport at similar rates as boys, coaching positions continue to be dominated by men. Existing research supports the value of diverse role models, especially for culturally diverse youth, and women coaches of color are especially important in sport given the low participation rates of ethnocultural minorities. Given the importance of diverse role models as sport coaches, this study investigates the experiences of women of color who coach sport at the recreational level. Based on interviews with 14 individuals, and grounded in socioecological theory, our findings describe the experience of research participants at each level (individual, interpersonal, organizational, and sociocultural) with a focus on the entry experience, barriers, and supports. Findings suggest that gendered and racial norms influence experiences across the model, and further lead to practical implications for sport managers.
... Representatives of some Canadian sport organizations called for more research with parent-coaches in order to inform organizational policy and educational initiatives (Holt et al., 2018). Indeed, where-as some studies have shown there are positive aspects of having a parent-coach (e.g., strengthening parent-child relationships; Trussell, 2016), research also shows that the parent-coach and child relationship can be challenging, involving multiple sources of tension and conflict which may negatively impact children's experiences in sport (Eliasson, 2018;Jowett et al., 2007;Weiss & Fretwell, 2005). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine perceptions of relationships between father-coaches and their daughters. ...
... A study conducted in Sweden sampled six parent-coach/child dyads (Eliasson, 2018). However, rather than using Jowett et al.'s (2007) dyadic analysis/profiling, only a thematic analysis was conducted. ...
... As such, results were presented at a group (i.e., thematic) level, and the unique characteristics of the particular dyadic relationships were not explored. Therefore, the results of the studies conducted by Jowett et al. (2007) and Eliasson (2018) suggest that recruiting dyads, and analyzing relationships within each dyad, could produce a nuanced understanding of father-coach and daughter relationships. We anticipated that it may be possible to identify different profiles of dyads, but were driven by data and did not determine profiles a priori. ...
Article
Full-text available
Representatives of some Canadian sport organizations have called for more research with parent-coaches in order to inform policy and educational initiatives. The purpose of this study was to examine perceptions of relationships between father-coaches and their daughters. Sixteen participants (eight father-coaches and eight daughters) completed individual interviews, which were transcribed verbatim and subjected to a dyadic analysis. Four dyads were coded as harmonious and four dyads were coded as conflicted. Certain factors differentiated between the harmonious and conflicted dyads. For example, in the harmonious dyads father-coaches adopted a relationship-oriented coaching approach and were consistent in their behaviors between home and sport settings. In the conflicted dyads, father-coaches adopted a more intense coaching approach and behaved differently in home versus sport settings. Father-coaches in the conflicted dyads were also much harsher on their own daughters compared to father-coaches in the harmonious dyads. These differentiating factors offer guidance that may inform training and educational opportunities specifically geared toward parent-coaches.
... This has contributed to a large turnover of coaches, leaders, and other administrative changes, forcing clubs to spend a significant amount of time on educating new volunteers [1]. At the same time, parental involvement is a prerequisite for the activity to continue in its present organizational form [14,17,18]. For example, many contemporary clubs in Sweden are starting teams for children at the age of five or six with a requirement that parents must continue to run the operation after a short initial start-up period organized by the club. ...
... In contrast to other areas of volunteering, as highlighted in the Introduction, parental participation in sports primarily involves the fathers [5,6,21]. There are, of course, many reasons for the predominance of male coaches but this highlights an interesting societal and cultural intersection of voluntary work and fatherhood [15,17]. In contemporary society, fathers are expected to take responsibility for the development of their children [6]. ...
... The individual interviews took place in a variety of settings including lunch restaurants, at the office of the author, in the sport club representation area and one interview via phone. The interview guide was based on the aims and research questions and on common themes from previous research regarding voluntary work and parental involvement in sports [1,8,9,17]. The narrative approach educed a conversation which revolved around fatherhood, learning in sports and the specificity of coaching your own child, but did not limit the participants from highlighting other issues. ...
Article
Full-text available
One central issue in sports is the role of informal learning in organized child and youth sport in contrast to learning in the school context of physical education (PE). In Scandinavia, the model for organizing sports include an independent sports organization that organizes child and youth training on many levels, including the grassroots level and elite competitions organized within non-profit clubs and based on non-salaried voluntary work. In contrast to the public schooling context where physical education is led by educated and professional PE-teachers, organized child and youth club sports are based on parental engagement. Drawing on ten interviews with male coaches training their own children, this study examines how fathers are handling learning in the dual position as a father and a coach. This narrative analysis focuses on the theoretical concept of dilemmatic spaces in interviews and shows how shared cultural and societal storylines are used by the parental coaches in their personal stories. The results illustrate three dilemmatic spaces of learning that the participants must rhetorically handle. The first dilemma illuminates the dual position of both being a father, and at the same time acting as a coach. In the second dilemma, the fathers are seeking to balance between care of their child and increasing performance development. The third dilemma is balancing the training as child/parent quality time and the need for children to develop autonomy. The results show how the dual position of being a father and a coach can be both an asset in the relational building but also highly problematic and, in any case, involves a relational identity change. Learning in this dual position means that the fathers cannot act entirely as a coaches and disregard or override their parental position.
... Nonetheless, research on parentcoach-child-athlete relationships should be pursued as it can be considered as part of the effort to achieve optimal talent development and individual development of athletes from the perspective of sport practice (Federal Institute of Sport Science [Bundesinstitut für Sportwissenschaft], 2023). The need to advance the study of parent-coachchild-athlete relationships may also be fueled by the fact that an increasing level of parental involvement is emerging in the field of youth sport in the present (Eliasson, 2019;Qunito Romani, 2020). A changing understanding of gender and parenting roles is hypothesized to trigger this Zeitgeist phenomenon (Trussell & Shaw, 2012). ...
... To date, this question has preferably been answered from the perspective of the parents (e.g., Gould & Martens, 1979). In general, Eliasson (2019Eliasson ( , p. 1007 points out "that the exact number of parentcoaches and child-athletes of coaches in many countries remains unknown. " Given this background, it is innovative to determine the frequency of parentcoaches from the perspective of children, and, in addition, to ask the question about the relevance of parent-coaches to athletic performance. ...
Article
Full-text available
The occurrence of children being coached by their parents in the world of sport is a well-known phenomenon, but one that remains insufficiently researched. It is rather unclear how common this is and there are very different assessments of whether it is more of an advantage or a disadvantage to be trained by one’s own parents. In the first study, we assess the frequency of occurrence of parent-coaches as well as the duration of these collaborations and their developmental location in the lives of the offspring. Results from a cross-sport survey and a soccer-specific survey indicate that a notable proportion of performance-oriented male and female senior athletes (19 and 34%, respectively) have been coached by their own parents at some point (χ ² [1, N = 291] = 7.770, p = 0.005, V = 0.163). In the second study, we address the question of the relevance of parent-coaches to athletic achievement. In this regard, the hypothesis that the proportion of male soccer players who were coached by their parents is larger in higher-ranking amateur leagues (38%) than in lower-ranking leagues (28 and 14%) was empirically confirmed (χ ² [2, N = 331] = 11.950, p = 0.003, V = 0.190). Thus, it can be assumed that about one fifth of all performance-oriented senior athletes had been coached by their own parents for some time. Moreover, the fact of having been trained by one’s own parents can in principle be regarded as a conducive condition for the athletic development of adolescents.
... Moreover, frequent exposure to different sport training styles may overwhelm adolescents. The unfavorable development of athletic talent and motor skill mastery have a greater negative impact (Eliasson, 2018). What's more, in addition to the mastery of the technical aspects of sports, the influence of coaches on adolescents is also reflected in the quality of sports and technical style shaping. ...
Article
Full-text available
The family is the first classroom for children and adolescents to learn and grow, and parents’ behavior plays an important role in influencing their children’s development, which is also evident in the process of sport participation. The main purpose of this study is to summarise the specific theoretical and practical experiences of parents in sport parenting based on a comprehensive review of the types and functions that constitute parental involvement in sport parenting and the process of their practice. To this end, this study used narrative research as the main research method and searched the literature related to parents’ involvement in parenting through sport using the Web of Science database. Using the theoretical underpinnings of parents’ implementation of sport parenting and their role practice, studies were screened and 39 pieces of literature were finally obtained. The study found that in terms of theoretical underpinnings, the existing types of parental involvement in sport parenting can be broadly categorized into four types: authoritative, authoritarian, permissive and rejecting-neglecting. The functions of parental involvement in sport education have two dimensions: promoting sport development and promoting socialization. Based on a review of their theories, we further summarise and conclude the consequences of action and appropriate practices of parental practices in three scenarios: on the sports field, on the way home and in the private space. It is assumed that parents, when participating in sports parenting, need to: (I) regulate their own behavior in order to avoid psychological pressure on their children due to inappropriate behavior; (II) play different roles at different stages of their children’s sports development; (III) should not put too much pressure on their children’s performance. Based on these reviews of the theory and practice of parental involvement in sport parenting, this study further examines the theoretical limitations of the established research. It is argued that future research should pay attention to the differences between the identities and expectations of parents or children of different genders about their sport parenting, in addition to the differences in parental involvement in sport parenting and different practices in different cultural contexts.
... However, as a parent to intervene in a Swedish horizontal individualistic culture can be precarious for various reasons. For instance, everyone is expected to take care of themselves (Gurdal & Sorbring, 2024), and also because most sporting activities at club level in Sweden are led by volunteer parents, which can lead to role conflicts for adults and children (Eliasson, 2019). Therefore, helping parents understand the value children attach to some types of interference is particularly important. ...
... But who at the sports stadium plays the role of the educator? The pedagogical literature on children's and youth sport has already made multifaceted analyses of the role of coaches [5,[12][13][14][15] and parents [16][17][18][19][20]. In their research, sports educators take into account not only the perspective of the coach and the parent but also the perspective of the child. ...
Article
Full-text available
We assume that all institutions and individuals involved in the organization of sport for children and young people should utilize the educational potential of sport. We assessed the quality of referee interactions with children during sports competitions in soccer. Based on the developmental theory and research suggesting that interactions between kids and adults are the primary mechanism of their development and learning, we focused on the quality of the referee-player interactions in terms of (1) emotional support, (2) game organization, and (3) instructional support. Twenty-five soccer referees who refereed matches for children aged 9-12 years were recruited. The Referee Educational Function Assessment Scoring System (REFASS) was used to assess the quality of the referee-player interactions. This tool was developed based on Classroom Assessment Scoring System-Upper Elementary. Regarding the REFASS dimensions, the mean scores for positive climate, Sensitivity, behavior management, content understanding and quality of feedback were in the medium range, while productivity and negative climate in the high range. In the case of the positive climate variable, the lowest mean ratings were recorded compared to other assessed dimensions. The assessments of the quality of referee-player interactions obtained for particular dimensions translated into the ratings for the specified domains. The highest ratings were given to game organization (6.0 ± 0.8; Me = 6.0), whereas the emotional support and instructional support were in the medium range (4.6 ± 1.5; Me = 4.5, and 5.2 ± 1.8; Me = 6.0, respectively). Referees are usually not aware of their pedagogical function and the complexity of their respective responsibilities. They are commonly considered to be ordinary technicians and evaluators of performance in competition. Based on the results, a postulate was formulated that referees should consciously perform a pedagogical function in the youth sport. Therefore, it is necessary to train them in educational methods and techniques appropriate to the age and needs of the child. The referees will then be prepared to take actions to prevent negative behavior of players on the field and to encourage prosocial behavior.
... The boys examined in our study agreed with statements about a family culture that involved sport slightly more often than girls, except in terms of their parents' exercise habits. This finding might also be interpreted as having resulted from some kind of reciprocity: because slightly more boys are involved in sport, their parents might also be more involved in sport (Eliasson, 2018), and more boys might reasonably perceive the family culture as being preoccupied with sports. We should nevertheless underline that the gender differences in our study were small, and that the general picture held for both boys and girls. ...
Article
Full-text available
Growing up in a family with an affinity for sports increases the likelihood of participating in club-organised sports. Few studies to date have addressed whether the importance of family sport culture is stable or changes during the teenage years. This article examines the association between family sport culture and participation in club-organised sports during teenage years and whether it differs between boys and girls. We utilise data from Norway and the comprehensive ‘Young in Oslo 2015’ survey (N = 6121; 79% response rate; ages 13–18). Three questions were combined into a measure of family sport culture in the present study: the importance of sport in the family, parents’ training habits, and whether parents would like their children to participate in sports. We observed a clear positive relationship between family sport culture and participation in club-organised sports. Except for a slightly weakened relationship with age among girls, the relationship was equally strong in all age groups. We suggest that the overall continuity in the relevance of family sport culture for young people’s sport participation reflects a prolonged socialisation effect that we utilise Bourdieu’s theory of habitus to understand.
Article
Full-text available
It has become increasingly apparent, internationally, that childhood is a crucial life-stage in the formation of predispositions towards sports participation and that parents are increasingly investing in the sporting capital of their children via a process of ‘concerted cultivation’. It is surprising, therefore, that parents’ involvement in the development of their children's sporting interests has received so little attention in Norway, given that sport is a significant pastime for Norwegians and participation has been steadily increasing – among youngsters, in particular – over the past several decades. Through a qualitative case study of a combined primary and secondary school in a small Norwegian city, this study sought to add to recent explorations of the role of parents in children's sporting involvement in Norway. As expected, it was evident that sport becomes taken for granted and internalised very early on in Norwegian children's lives. Less expected was the recognition that children's nascent sporting interests were often generated by sports clubs via early years schooling and, therefore, that parents played only one (albeit very important) part in the formation of their youngsters’ early sporting habits. Thus, parents, sports clubs and early years schooling appeared to form something akin to a ‘sporting trinity’ in youngsters’ nascent sporting careers. These findings may have implications for policy-makers looking towards Norway for a ‘recipe’ for sports participation.
Article
Full-text available
There has been increasing academic interest in understanding the nature of parental involvement in youth sport. Much scholarly focus has illuminated both positive and negative forms of sport parenting from the perspectives of coaches, parents and youth participants. One less understood aspect however surrounds the potentially conflicting role of parents who coach their own children in youth sport. This is surprising given that many parents demonstrate support by fulfilling essential roles such as team manager and team coach (Jeffery-Tosoni, Fraser-Thomas, & Baker, 2015). This paper emerges from a larger qualitative study, which sought to investigate the nature of parental influence in junior Australian football. As can be the case with qualitative inquiry, a range of unintended themes were uncovered including an exploration of the experiences of being a parent/coach in youth sport. This paper draws on rich, descriptive qualitative data from 16 parent/coaches to highlight the contemporary experiences of parent/coaches who coach their own child. Three themes were identified including deliberate criticism, limited recognition, and behaviour justification, illustrating how parent/coaches intentionally demonstrate differential behaviour toward their child in contrast to the rest of the team. Examples of this include demonstrating deliberate criticism at training and matches and overlooking their child in awarding weekly encouragement awards after each match. Significantly, parent/coaches justify these behaviours in attempting to fulfil the dual role of parent and team coach to the best of their ability. Through the lens of social constructionism, we argue that this is not only problematic for parent and child relationships, but it may also have a reinforcing influence on how other parent/coaches negotiate the dual role. We argue that the reproduction of these behaviours can potentially preserve problematic aspects of parental involvement in youth sport, offering a unique perspective to the sport-parenting literature.
Article
Full-text available
The interpersonal dynamics of the parent/coach-child/athlete relationship were explored in the context of family change as this pertains to the athlete's transition into and through adolescence. A single dyad participated in the study whose parent/coach-child/athlete relationship commenced approximately at the onset of the athlete's adolescence and experienced performance success during a period of seven years of partnership. Data were collected utilising two parallel interview schedules and analysed employing a combination of content and narrative analyses. The dyad described both the coach-athlete relationship and the parent-child relationship in positive terms. However, analysis revealed that the dyad experienced difficulties in co-ordinating their dual roles and expressed a sense of dislike toward each others behaviours. The child/athlete reported conflict more often than her parent/coach. The results of this study are discussed considering relevant theory and research on parent-child relationships during adolescence.
Article
Full-text available
This paper re-examines the purposes of a planned and intentional parenting style – ‘concerted cultivation’ – for different middle-class groups, highlighting that social class fraction, ethnicity, and also individual family disposition, guides understandings of the purposes of enrolling children in particular enrichment activities. We examine how parents and their children engage in extra-curricular activities for instrumental reasons with a view to securing skills, qualities and distinction for the future. Additionally, however, enrichment activities are understood as offering present-day values such as enjoyment, social bonding and purposeful activity. The paper also highlights that current policy and broader commercial discourses call for the increased responsibilisation and intensification of parenting, which means that ‘good’ parents are required to ‘buy into’ extra-curricular activities for their children, with concomitant implications for those whose access to activities is limited by economic circumstance.
Article
Full-text available
As part of an ethnographic study on young people and learning (the knowledge in motion across contexts of learning project, set in Norway), we interviewed a diverse sample of parents of young teenagers, many of whom were active in organized sports. The parents described their level of involvement in sport in a way that contrasted sharply to our own experiences participating in youth sports in the 1970s and 1980s. Back then most parents were absent from the sports fields. This new role of sports in the practice of parenthood is what we investigate in this study. The purpose is to further the understanding of the cultural processes that drive what we see as a marked generational change in the relationship between organized sports and the practice of parenthood. In contrast to previous studies, we also focus on the relationship between generational change and classed patterns in parenting. Our data suggest that across social classes, parents see involvement in sports as normal, and as a way to connect to the child emotionally and to further the child’s development. We interpret the significance of sports in the parent–child relationship as related both to the normalization of youth sports that the parents experienced when they grew up, and to the new cultural ideas of parenthood that they encounter as adults. We find that there are tensions embedded in this new form of parenthood that are particularly evident in what we call ‘deep involvement’, an intensified form of parental engagement with youth sports that is practiced primarily by fathers in the economic fraction of the middle class. We conclude that the new role of sport in the practice of parenthood is a classed as well as a generational phenomenon.
Article
What are the myths and realities of the Scandinavian sport model? The author analyses four constituents of the Scandinavian sport model, using Norwegian football as an example. For adult football, there is clear discrepancy between conceptions and realities, while the current model describes the realities of children’s and youth football fairly accurately. The author reports and analyses interviews with leaders of an elite sports club and a sport-for-all club, as well as the results of a survey of 155 coaches of children’s and youth football. The survey and interviews reveal that Norwegian football is a divided house, possibly signalling future trends in Scandinavian sport as a whole. Whether the distinguishing features of Scandinavian sport will continue is an open question.
Article
Undertaking qualitative research on sensitive topics often raises a variety of ethical problems. Based on empirical research, this book documents experiences throughout the entire research process: From conceptualization, ethics approval, fieldwork, to analysis and publication. It presents readers with stories from the researcher's perspective and synthesizes these experiences into a conceptual framework that will assist researchers to undertake qualitative research. Each section discusses potential pitfalls, provides quotes and stories and reviews the relevant literature and theory, providing readers with a description of the process of conducting sensitive research from the perspective of those actually doing the research. This is not a methodology textbook, rather, it discusses the issues faced by researchers during the conduct of qualitative research on sensitive topics, such as death and dying, sexuality, homelessness, HIV/AIDS, cancer. It provides practical recommendations for researchers and Research Ethics Committees. It will also be a useful resource for anyone interested in undertaking a research project on sensitive topics and for those teaching qualitative methods across a broad range of disciplines. © V. Dickson-Swift, E. James and P. Liamputtong and Cambridge University Press, 2008.