Individual, relationship, and context factors associated with parent support and pressure in organized youth sport

• Parent–child relationships link to parent support and pressure in youth sport.
• Parent affect and motivational climate also link to parent support and pressure.
• Self, partner, and child reports of core study variables lack congruence.
• Continued work is needed that addresses process, person, context, and time in sport.

ObjectivesWe examined the association of multiple process, person, and context factors (Bronfenbrenner, 2005) with parents’ involvement (support and pressure) in sport. Specifically, we examined (a) the concordance among self, partner, and child reports of fathers and mothers for key study variables, and (b) prediction of parent support and pressure in youth sport by warmth and conflict in the parent–child relationship, parent positive and negative affect, and mastery and ego dimensions of the coach-created motivational climate.DesignCross-sectional survey.MethodSelf-reports of study variables were collected from athletes (ages 11–13 years) and parents from participating families (final N = 201). Multitrait-multimethod analysis was used to address the first study aim and multivariate multiple regression analysis for the second aim.ResultsValues for concordance among reporters were largely significant and in hypothesized directions, yet were of modest magnitude and suggested low reporter agreement (Cohen's κ range = −.07–.35). Multivariate relationships were significant and were of low to moderate magnitude (Rd range = .04–.22). Canonical loadings showed that warmth, positive affect, and mastery climate positively associate with support, whereas conflict, negative affect, and ego climate positively associate with pressure from fathers and mothers. Conflict and positive affect positively associated with support and pressure in some functions, suggesting complexity in interpretations of parent involvement.ConclusionFindings support the adaptive role of parent-child warmth, positive parent affect, and coach-created mastery motivational climate in youth sport; however, low concordance of reporter perceptions must be considered when pursuing family-related questions in sport.