Even experts are parents first when it comes to deciding kids’ sport activities

When it comes to children’s participation in sports, parents play a huge role. They do everything from driving their kids, to exercises and games, to making sure they are fueled up and have the right gear.

The reality of many crowded modern schedules means that parents must also make difficult decisions about which sports their child will participate in.

“The decisions parents make about how many sports their children play, which sports, and at what age can really impact their children’s sporting trajectories and future physical activity levels,” said Heather Larson, Associate Associate Professor at the Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport and Recreation.

While we know that these decisions have a major impact on children, we know very little about sport-centric parental decision-making. Larson is the lead author of a recent study that surveyed a specific group of experts to try to fill this knowledge gap.

Identifying some of the factors that influence parental decision-making can help develop more effective guidelines and recommendations.

“If parents are being influenced by broader sports guidelines, if they’re being negatively influenced by recommendations, maybe those recommendations need to be rewritten,” she says. As an example, she cites the long-term development framework of Sport for Life.

It could also be beneficial for other facilities involved in youth sports, Larson adds.

“If there are things that clubs can do differently or coaches can do differently to support participation in multiple sports or just to relieve some of that stress, that gives us something again to target to improve the youth sport system. ”

Larson and her collaborators selected a specific group for the survey—scientists with PhDs in sports-related disciplines who also had one or more children between the ages of eight and 15 who are currently involved in organized competitive sports.

“She [the survey participants] have this really solid knowledge base of sport policy and the evidence of good practice in youth sport, so they’re looking at things through that lens. But then they also have this personal experience,” says Larson. “It’s this crossing that gives them this unique angle.”

The survey responses indicated that despite the participants’ expertise in best practices, this was not the reason for their decision making.

“They weren’t overly concerned about following recommendations at all,” says Larson. “They took a much more flexible and holistic approach, thinking about all the factors within their families and also thinking about the specific characteristics and needs of their children.”

Researchers identified several influencing factors that shaped parents’ decisions, including their own sporting backgrounds and beliefs about sport, their child’s preferences and personal characteristics, and their child’s competency in a particular sport. Practical considerations such as financial costs and scheduling challenges were also taken into account.

The majority of survey participants encouraged their children to try different sports, although Larson notes that this doesn’t necessarily mean multiple organized sports. It could mean enrolling a child in an organized soccer team and then prioritizing hiking and skiing trips with the family, or supplementing a primarily organized sport with shorter summer camps focused on other sports or exercise types.

Another factor was the opportunity to assess the sporting environment and adapt it to the needs of the child. For example, some parents have chosen to pause or delay a child’s participation in a program until they reach a certain age or size.

Many of the participants said they visit their child regularly to make sure they still enjoy a particular sport or to address changes in the child’s behavior or problems they have noticed.

Larson says there is room for improvement in youth sports in terms of policy. For example, many sports policies and recommendations seem to assume that a family has two parents with two cars and one child in one sport, and neglect the challenges that families with multiple children in different sports can pose.

There really is no one-size-fits-all recommendation—every family is unique, and while there are certain common influencers, parents need to consider the specifics of their particular situation when making decisions.

“I really want parents to feel empowered to make decisions that work best for their entire family,” says Larson.

“What’s really important is that their kids feel like they want to be in their sport, they feel like they’re gaining competence, that they’re getting better at it and that they have positive relationships with their teammates and coaches .”