Building Bridges Between Sport Parents and Coaches: A Focus-Group Study

Background/Purpose: Significant adults in the lives of children, such as parents and coaches, play an important role in their psychosocial development and achievement motivation (Fredricks & Eccles, 2004; Horn, 2002). Parents and coaches are important resources in the growth and development of competence, autonomy, and relatedness in youth athletes (Deci & Ryan, 1985). While the most important interactions from these adults are directly with the child athletes, researchers are now also focusing on the interactions between the coaches and parents, which have been shown to influence the child’s experience (Jowett & Timson-Katchis, 2005). The purpose of this project was to explore youth sport parents’ perspectives on the relationships between parents and coaches.

Method: Six focus groups (N = 25; dads = 5; moms = 20) were conducted with recreational youth sport parents who had children between ages 5-12 at the time of the study. Parents were recruited using a snowball sampling procedure as well as through posted flyers on a university campus. Discussions lasted from 45- 60 minutes, including ice breakers and targeted questions and included 4-6 parents. All participants received refreshments and a $10 Wal-Mart gift card for their participation.

Analysis/Results: Focus group discussions were transcribed and then coded independently by four researchers. Four primary themes and ten secondary themes describing positive parent-coach interactions were agreed upon by the research team and raw data were used for support. Primary themes consisted of the following: a) roles and boundaries, b) respect, c) communication, and d) coaching philosophy. Within roles and boundaries, secondary themes included the friend/coach boundary, clear communication of roles for both parents and coaches, and the importance of parents maintaining their role. For the respect them, secondary points included letting the coach coach, fostering mutual respect, and expecting fairness from the coach. The communication theme included honest and open communication and two-way communication. The final theme of coaching philosophy consisted of fostering a partnership between parent and coach and using a mastery approach.

Conclusions: Participants expressed the desire to work with coaches in order to provide positive sport experiences and discussed their responsibilities as well as expectations for coaches. These findings can be disseminated to youth sport administrators and coach educators who can use the information to design educational sessions and programming for coaches and parents that focus on positive youth sport environments.