Parental involvement and gender differences in the psychological profile of freshmen collegiate athletes

BackgroundThe parent-to-child influences can be adaptive and contribute to the optimal psychological well-being and positive perception of the athlete. Contrary to the healthy parental involvement, a family can also have negative effects on an athlete development. The purpose of this study was to determine gender, father involvement, and mother involvement differences in the psychological profiles of collegiate freshmen athletes as measured by perfectionism, physical self-concept, and psychological well-being.MethodsEighty-two male and 73 female collegiate freshmen responded to self-reported measures of family involvement, perfectionism, physical self-concept, and psychological well-being. Three separate 2 × 2 × 2 (gender × mother involvement × father involvement) factorial multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVAs) were carried out on the respective subscales from the reported measures.ResultsThere were significant differences for gender as well as father involvement in perfectionism (p < 0.01). Freshmen females had lower concern over mistakes, and greater levels of organization as well as planfulness than males. Furthermore, freshmen athletes with high involved fathers showed greater levels of high standards for others as well as organization.ConclusionFather involvement and mother involvement impact extends through the freshmen year in college as shown in the athletes' perfectionism, physical self-concept, and psychological well-being. Future research should develop better measures and utilize a family systems perspective.