What is the Impact of Parents in Youth Sports?
I. Introductory
Every year in the United States alone, 48 million youth participate in an organized youth sport (Hirschhorn.2013.26). Parents have a crucial role in the proper development throughout their children 's life. Sport is arguably one of the most important tools used in crafting desired traits from a young age. Therefore, it is important to understand how parents impact their children 's experiences while they participate in youth sports. Due to the importance of the topic, parental involvement in youth sport has been heavily debated in recent years. A study recently done on North American parents showed that 75 percent of parents are involved with their child’s sports activities (Sage.2013.67). …show more content…
Socioeconomic status can influence the decision of the parents on what sport their child will play in several ways. One example of socioeconomic status influencing the parent’s decision that impacts a child’s sport experience is that several sports are more expensive than others. Due to certain organized sports being very expensive, parents in lower socioeconomic classes have more issues manufacturing the large amount of money needed to pay for the child to participate in organized youth sport. Parents sometimes unable to have enough money set aside for youth sports which not only causes them to not be able to play organized sports, but research shows these youth have lower physical activity levels late in life than those whose parents could afford organized youth sports for their children (White.2012.187). Some youth sport expenses, such as transportation, overnight stays, and monthly organization fees can cause certain children to be unable to participate or put pressure on families financially to provide money for the child’s youth sport activities. Within The Rising Costs of Youth Sports, in Money and Emotion by Paul Sullivan, Sullivan states that it is not abnormal for a family to spend $5,500 or more on a …show more content…
Certain sports such as basketball, baseball, boxing, wrestling, and football are characterized by having more children from working-class families, while sports such as tennis, golf, swimmers, gymnasts, and skiers are characterized by upper-middle class families (Sage.2013.67). In the beginning of organized youth sport, the concentration of certain socioeconomic classes in certain organized youth sports was due to basketball, baseball, boxing, wrestling, and football being more financially accessible to the working-class. More recently, the cause to the segregation of socioeconomic classes in sports has been attributed to it being socially appropriate (Sage.2013.67). Because of this, there has been a continued overrepresentation of these classes in these particular sports
I. Introductory
Every year in the United States alone, 48 million youth participate in an organized youth sport (Hirschhorn.2013.26). Parents have a crucial role in the proper development throughout their children 's life. Sport is arguably one of the most important tools used in crafting desired traits from a young age. Therefore, it is important to understand how parents impact their children 's experiences while they participate in youth sports. Due to the importance of the topic, parental involvement in youth sport has been heavily debated in recent years. A study recently done on North American parents showed that 75 percent of parents are involved with their child’s sports activities (Sage.2013.67). …show more content…
Socioeconomic status can influence the decision of the parents on what sport their child will play in several ways. One example of socioeconomic status influencing the parent’s decision that impacts a child’s sport experience is that several sports are more expensive than others. Due to certain organized sports being very expensive, parents in lower socioeconomic classes have more issues manufacturing the large amount of money needed to pay for the child to participate in organized youth sport. Parents sometimes unable to have enough money set aside for youth sports which not only causes them to not be able to play organized sports, but research shows these youth have lower physical activity levels late in life than those whose parents could afford organized youth sports for their children (White.2012.187). Some youth sport expenses, such as transportation, overnight stays, and monthly organization fees can cause certain children to be unable to participate or put pressure on families financially to provide money for the child’s youth sport activities. Within The Rising Costs of Youth Sports, in Money and Emotion by Paul Sullivan, Sullivan states that it is not abnormal for a family to spend $5,500 or more on a …show more content…
Certain sports such as basketball, baseball, boxing, wrestling, and football are characterized by having more children from working-class families, while sports such as tennis, golf, swimmers, gymnasts, and skiers are characterized by upper-middle class families (Sage.2013.67). In the beginning of organized youth sport, the concentration of certain socioeconomic classes in certain organized youth sports was due to basketball, baseball, boxing, wrestling, and football being more financially accessible to the working-class. More recently, the cause to the segregation of socioeconomic classes in sports has been attributed to it being socially appropriate (Sage.2013.67). Because of this, there has been a continued overrepresentation of these classes in these particular sports