THE PERCEPTION OF PARENTS’ POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE
REINFORCEMENTS AND BEHAVIORS RELATED TO YOUTH SPORTS
Chapter 1:
Introduction
When
spectators visit youth sporting events and see parents pushing their child
athletes towards extreme performance and displaying aggressive and rude
behavior towards the child, the audience, coaches, and children begin to
develop negative thoughts
Moreover,
positive and negative behaviors have short- and long-term effects on child
athletes. As such, parents’ actions and behaviors positively or negatively
motivate child athletes
Consequently,
parents have several opportunities, positive and negative, that influence their
children’s sporting experiences. Often, parents try to live out their athletic
dreams through the current abilities of their child athletes. Anderson et al.
(2003) pointed out that as parental pressure increases, children’s enjoyment
and satisfaction decrease
Also,
some African American parents perceive sports as upward mobility towards success
and the only way to attain happiness and prosperity in their lives. The
American dream is the belief that anyone, regardless of where or what class
they were born into, can attain their version of success in a society where
upward mobility is possible for everyone. Moreover, research on the attitudes
to gaining wealth and getting ahead in the United States and elsewhere shows
that Americans tend to see individual hard work and effort as the key to
getting ahead. This belief
continues to grow because of the myths and stereotypes involving the notion
that African Americans and sports are a part of the former’s biological history
and cultural destiny, especially in certain categories of sports.
Problem
Statement
Parents
demonstrating poor behavior at youth sporting events create a negative impact
on the youth and the sports environment. Therefore, the actions of some parents
affect children’s participation in sports, apart from reducing the number of
referees and league offices. According to Bach (2006), 74% percent said they
had witnessed out- of- control adults at their games, and the two most common
types of bad behavior involved parents yelling at children and officials or
coaches. Further, parents are becoming involved in the lives of young athletes.
Greater competition for athletic scholarships and the lure of professional
sports has motivated many parents to commit their children to special training
regimens at an early age.
The
problem of parents behaving badly has escalated to extreme levels. It is one
more factor that may cause the child to have issues in other areas of
development. If children and parents deregulated, they would need help in being
regulated; they will have to address the problem that has deregulated the
children and the parents, which is the only process that can help the persons
concerned. Further, news reports and scholarly journal articles have expressed
increasing concern that parent-spectator behavior at youth sports events may be
problematic. Therefore, multiple strategies have been used to influence
spectator behavior in the youth sport context.
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