Types of Parental Attitudes in the Psychological Support of a Child-Athlete: A Diagnostic Questionnaire

Abstract

<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Objective</strong><strong>. </strong>Development and psychometric testing of a questionnaire that allows diagnosing the types of parental attitudes in the psychological support of a child-athlete. <br><strong>Background.</strong> Researchers distinguish various, including "problem" types, the relationship of a parent to a child-athlete, emphasizing the importance of this factor in the development of a sports career and the need for its diagnosis. At the same time, there are no standardized methods that allow quantitatively measuring parental attitudes in relation to the child-athlete. <br><strong>Study design.</strong> The hypothetical model of parental attitudes in the psychological support of a child-athlete included six types. During the psychometric testing of the questionnaire, the initial model was transformed and three types of parental attitudes were empirically identified. Data collection was organized using Google Forms, the link for taking the survey was sent directly through social networks. <br><strong>Participants.</strong> The sample consisted of 204 respondents: parents of children-athletes (mothers &ndash; 74,8%; fathers &ndash; 25,5%). <br><strong>Measurements.</strong> Psychometric testing of the author's questionnaire "Types of parental attitudes in the psychological support of a child-athlete" for indicators of constructive and competitive validity, retest reliability, consistency, discrimination of scales was carried out using correlation and cluster analysis, frequency analysis. Competitive validity was carried out using the Parent Relationship Questionnaire (A.Ya. Varga and V.V. Stolin). Statistica 7 and Excel 2013 programs were used for data processing. <br><strong>Results.</strong> Three types of parental attitudes in the psychological support of a young athlete were empirically verified: "Unfulfilled parental ambitions", "Involved, supporting parent", "Distracted, negatively inclined parent". The norms of expressiveness of each type of parental attitudes and their frequency in the standardization sample were revealed. The questionnaire "Types of parental attitudes in the psychological support of a child-athlete" and the key to it are presented in the appendix to the article. <br><strong>Conclusions.</strong> The questionnaire "Types of parental attitudes in the psychological support of a child-athlete" developed by the authors is reliable and valid and can be proposed as a diagnostic tool for scientific and practical use in the psychological and pedagogical support of children's and youth sports.</p>