Parenting in youth tennis: Understanding and enhancing children's experiences

• We developed a grounded theory of optimal parental involvement in junior tennis.
• Shared and communicated goals underpin optimal parental involvement.
• Parents should seek to create an understanding emotional climate.
• Parents should engaged in enhancing parenting practices in competition.
• Consistency between goals, climate, and practices will optimize involvement.

ObjectiveThe overall purpose of this study was to develop a grounded theory of optimal parental involvement in youth tennis.DesignA Straussian grounded theory methodology (Corbin and Strauss, 2008 and Strauss and Corbin, 1998) was used. Semi-structured interviews and focus groups were conducted with 90 youth tennis players, ex-youth players, parents, and coaches from the United Kingdom. Data were analyzed through a process of open and axial coding, and theoretical integration. Through this process data were broken down into smaller units (concepts), relationships between concepts were identified, and a substantive grounded theory was developed.ResultsThe grounded theory of optimal parental involvement in tennis was built around the core category of ‘understanding and enhancing your child's tennis journey.’ The core category was underpinned by three categories: (a) Share and communicate goals, which referred to the need for parents and children to have the same aims for the child's tennis involvement; (b) develop an understanding emotional climate, which accounted for the need for parents to continually seek to foster an environment in which children perceived parents understand their experience, and; (c) engage in enhancing parenting practices at competitions, which denoted the specific behaviors parents should display in relation to competitive tennis.ConclusionThe theory predicts that consistency between goals, emotional climate, and parenting practices will optimize parenting in youth tennis.