Parents’ Perceptions of Their Involvement in Their Child’s Sport Activity

Abstract

The aim of this study was twofold: (a) to examine how parents perceive their involvement in their child’s sport activity and (b) to compare these perceptions according to the stage of the child’s sport participation. Using a qualitative design, 36 French parents of young tennis players were interviewed with a semistructured format. Transcriptions were analyzed by means of the propositional analysis of discourse, which permits, through the use of linguistic indicators, taking into account semantic and syntactic features. Results indicated that parents of noncompetitive tennis players talked negatively about their own (tangible) involvement and perceived tennis as a leisure-time activity, whereas parents of competitive players considered that both mother and father supported their child (through use of “we” pronouns used in discourses) in this activity.