The Effects of Parenting Styles on Youth Sport Participation and Enjoyment

Abstract

Parenting styles affect youth sports participation and enjoyment in many ways. The purpose of this synthesis was to examine the effects of autonomy-supporting and controlling parenting styles on youth sports. The methods included the search and analysis on numerous studies that were organized using an article grid (See Appendix A). Common themes found were the effects of parenting styles on support, values passed on to children and pressures placed on the child. The autonomy-supportive parenting style showed to provide an open atmosphere for the child to participate in youth sport, allowed to feel the highest level of support, generated a task orientation, valued learning over status, as well as felt less pressure to perform from outside sources. The controlling parenting style however is shown to have closed communication between the child and parent, generating fear and the feeling of conditional love and support dependent on performance. The values passed on to these children tend to be more of status and comparing themselves to others as well as feeling added pressures to perform.