THE STRESSORS EXPERIENCED AND COPING STRATEGIES
USED BY THE PARENTS OF YOUTH SWIMMERS
By
Ian Henry James Cowburn

A DISSERTATION
Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
Kinesiology—Doctor of Philosophy
2015

PUBLIC ABSTRACT
THE STRESSORS EXPERIENCED AND COPING STRATEGIES
USED BY THE PARENTS OF YOUTH SWIMMERS
By
Ian Henry James Cowburn
The sight of a parent at a youth sporting event taking the game much too seriously is
becoming all too familiar. However, despite the fact some parents may not be engaging in the most
positive behaviors or those that are the most beneficial, the behavior originates from a place of
wanting the best for their child. Despite a wealth of research looking at how parents influence
children in sport, relatively little has looked at outcomes for parents. The current study examines
the stressors experienced and coping strategies used by parents with children in swimming.
Interviews were conducted with 10 couples (20 parents overall) about the benefits and challenges
of being a sport parent, and then what strategies they use to cope with those challenges. Numerous
benefits (e.g., development of their child and friendships with other parents), stressors (e.g.,
logistics of getting to practice, time demands, and competitive outcomes), and coping strategies
(e.g., prioritization of resources, communication with others, and planning) were mentioned during
parent interviews. All parents experienced multiple stressors and used multiple coping strategies
at any one time, additionally, one coping strategy could be used for several stressors (e.g., use of
prioritization to cope with time and logistical demands). Importantly, while there were common
stressors and coping strategies, how these were experienced was often different for each parent,
making it difficult to associate coping strategies with specific stressors. Additionally, what was a
stressor for one parent may have been a coping strategy for another, (e.g., other parents were a
source of support for some parents and a source of stress for others). Recommendations for parents,
coaches, and clubs with regard to improving the parent experience in swimming are forwarded.

ABSTRACT
THE STRESSORS EXPERIENCED AND COPING STRATEGIES
USED BY THE PARENTS OF YOUTH SWIMMERS
By
Ian Henry James Cowburn
Parents are major agents in the youth sport experience, and yet we understand little regarding the
sport parenting experience, particularly the benefits and stressors experienced, and the coping
strategies used by sports parents. The purposes of this study were threefold: (1) determine the
benefits and stressors experienced by youth sport parents; (2) determine the coping strategies used
by swimming parents; and (3) conduct sport parent stress research that included both parents to
better understand individual and family functioning. The purposes of the study were addressed by
interviewing 10 parent-dyads regarding their experiences in youth sport. Nomothetic and case
study analyses revealed that parents experienced a number of benefits (e.g., parent friendships or
child life-skill development) and stressors (e.g., planning and logistics stressors), and engaged in
numerous coping strategies (e.g., communication) due to swimming involvement. Parents
perceived multiple stressors at any one time and engaged in multiple coping strategies to cope with
the stressors experienced. Links between specific stressors, and coping strategies were difficult to
draw because of the complex and idiosyncratic nature of the stress and coping appraisal process.
Case study analyses further explained the idiosyncratic nature of the stress and coping relationship
by demonstrating that parent-dyads experienced similar stressors in different ways due to family
demographics and specific family narratives. Additionally, parent-dyads worked together to divide
stressors between the two parents (e.g., one parent would be the taxi driver for practice while the
other made dinner) as a way of reducing stress and increasing coping strategy efficiency. Overall
parent coping appeared to be successful and adaptive with regard to the stressors faced

This dissertation is dedicated to the clubs, coaches, and parents that were involved in the study,
and in a broader way to all youth sport parents. I was incredibly fortunate to meet coaches and
parents that were as passionate about swimming and the role of parents in youth sport as I am. You
reaffirmed my belief in the importance of studying youth sport and parents. I hope the results of
this dissertation serve as some validation of your commitment.

iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research was supported by a Research Practicum / Research Development Fellowship from
the College of Education at Michigan State University.
The ISYS and MSU Kinesiology: I would like to thank to the many wonderful people with whom I
have interacted over the last five years, in particular the graduate students and associates of the
Institute for the Study of Youth Sport both past and present. Special thanks are reserved for Nori
Pennisi and Dr. Andy Driska - thank you for making the journey with me Dr. Driska!
Saginaw Valley State University Dept. of Kinesiology: It is no small part that my finishing this
dissertation within my first semester at SVSU was down to the flexibility and support of the
students, staff, and faculty at SVSU.
Transcription Team: I would like to acknowledge the work of my transcription team, Laura Cizek,
Matt Lewandowski, Terry and James Cowburn, and Thomas Lester. Your professionalism and
hard work were incredible, and allowed me to finish in reasonable time.
Dr. Smith: Thank you so much for taking the time to work with me during what was a very busy
time of adaptation with your arrival as Department Chair. I am grateful for your insight and for
consistently challenging me to be clearer, particularly with regard to qualitative methodology.
Dr. Ames: Your appreciation of the sporting context, but constant reminders to look beyond sport
proved invaluable in the dissertation process and will continue to do so as I move through my
career. Thank you for your time and guidance, especially with regard to parent education.
Dr. Ewing: I learned and developed as a thinker from ad hoc conversations with you as much as I
did through any formal assessment. We solved all the worlds’ problems in those conversations,
and I will spend a large part of academic my career trying to make some of the solutions a reality.

iv

Dr. Gould: There is really not enough space for me to thank you for all the advice, guidance, and
mentorship you have provided. I learned an incredible amount from you just by observing your
approach to science and to people. Sometimes it is difficult to know just how intentional you are,
but I know that you were able to push and prod in the right way at the right time to get me through.
Your work ethic and humility are two things that I hope to carry forward in my own career. Thanks
Boss.
Mum and Dad (and the rest of the family): The original sports parents and inspiration for the
dissertation. I remember, in a time of great stress and doubt, having a long conversation about
whether the time, money, and energy were all worth it. Was the pursuit of an Olympic games all
it was built up to be? I hope this dissertation goes some way toward beginning to answer that
question – for if not for your dedication and support, (and the sport of swimming), I would not be
where I am today.

v

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES ...........................................................................................................................x
CHAPTER I .....................................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................................1
The Case for Youth Sport as a Developmental Context ............................................................1
The Case for Studying Sport Parents ........................................................................................ 2
The Case for Stress and Coping ................................................................................................ 5
Theoretical Frames for Studying Stress and Coping in the Parents of Youth Swimmers ........ 8
The Purposes of the Current Study ......................................................................................... 10
CHAPTER II ..................................................................................................................................12
LITERATURE REVIEW ..............................................................................................................12
Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 12
Parenting ................................................................................................................................. 13
Definitions......................................................................................................................... 13
Parent Roles ...................................................................................................................... 16
General parenting roles. .............................................................................................. 16
Sport specific parent roles. .......................................................................................... 17
Perceived sport parent behaviors. ......................................................................... 18
Actual sport parent behaviors. ........................................................................ 20
Sport parenting styles. ..................................................................................... 21
Parent influence on psychological characteristics of developing excellence. 24
Conclusions on parent roles in sport. .............................................................. 26
Consequences of Sport Parenting and Sport Involvement on Sport Parents .......................... 29
Parent Experiential Outcomes........................................................................................... 30
Parent Socialization Outcomes ......................................................................................... 32
Parent Stress Outcomes..................................................................................................... 36
Stress and the appraisal process. ................................................................................. 36
Stress and appraisal. ........................................................................................ 36
Organizational stress. ................................................................................ 39
Competitive stress. .................................................................................... 40
Sport parent stress outcome research. ............................................................. 40
Coping ..................................................................................................................................... 48
Definition .......................................................................................................................... 48
Typologies of Coping ....................................................................................................... 49
Twelve families’ hierarchy of coping. ........................................................................ 49
Problem and emotion focused coping. ........................................................................ 51
Measurement of Coping .................................................................................................... 53
What has been learned about Coping? .............................................................................. 54
Coping styles. .............................................................................................................. 55
Coping effectiveness – the goodness of fit hypothesis. .............................................. 55
Antecedents to coping. ................................................................................................ 56
vi

Coping outcomes. ....................................................................................................... 57
Overall conclusions..................................................................................................... 58
The Rationale for the Current Study ....................................................................................... 59
CHAPTER III ................................................................................................................................63
METHOD ......................................................................................................................................63
Participants.............................................................................................................................. 63
Procedure ................................................................................................................................ 64
Participants and Recruitment ............................................................................................ 64
Data Collection ................................................................................................................. 67
Demographic questionnaire. ....................................................................................... 67
Interview process. ....................................................................................................... 68
Data Analysis .................................................................................................................... 70
Methodological Rigor ............................................................................................................. 73
Investigator training .......................................................................................................... 73
Researcher triangulation and peer debriefing ................................................................... 74
Audit trail .......................................................................................................................... 75
Member checking.............................................................................................................. 75
Reflexivity statements ....................................................................................................... 76
Lead Researcher Reflexivity Statements .................................................................... 77
Epistemological Beliefs and Approach to Research ....................................... 77
Regarding the Current Study .......................................................................... 78
CHAPTER IV ................................................................................................................................81
RESULTS ......................................................................................................................................81
Participants.............................................................................................................................. 81
Nomothetic Analyses .............................................................................................................. 83
Benefits ............................................................................................................................. 84
General dimension one: child benefits. ....................................................................... 84
Child well-being.............................................................................................. 85
Child holistic development. ............................................................................ 86
Affiliations ...................................................................................................... 87
General dimension two: parent benefits. .................................................................... 88
Parent experiences. ......................................................................................... 88
Affiliations. ..................................................................................................... 88
Active parent roles. ......................................................................................... 89
General dimension three: benefits of swimming. ....................................................... 90
Swimming environment. ................................................................................. 90
General dimension four: family benefits. ................................................................... 92
Family Function. ............................................................................................. 92
Parent Stressors ................................................................................................................. 93
Organizational stressors general dimension................................................................ 93
Planning and organization............................................................................... 96
Time. ............................................................................................................... 98
Organizations. ............................................................................................... 101
Coaches. .................................................................................................. 101
vii

Clubs. ...................................................................................................... 103
Child stressors. .............................................................................................. 104
Child athletic development. .................................................................... 105
Child interactions. ................................................................................... 107
Family stressors. ........................................................................................... 109
Social stressors. ............................................................................................. 113
Personal stressors. ......................................................................................... 115
Competitive stressors general dimension.................................................................. 116
Expectations and outcomes at competitions. ................................................ 116
Watching meets............................................................................................. 118
Lack of swimming knowledge and needing to learn the sport. .................... 119
Preparation for meets. ................................................................................... 121
Developmental stressors general dimension. ............................................................ 121
Child well-being............................................................................................ 121
School related development. ......................................................................... 123
Lack of general development. ....................................................................... 125
General stressors general dimension. ........................................................................ 125
Parent Coping Strategies ................................................................................................. 126
Justification for swimming involvement general dimension. ................................... 126
Holding an active philosophy for participation in swimming. ..................... 127
Goals for swimming involvement. ................................................................ 134
Communication general dimension. ......................................................................... 136
Within family communication. ..................................................................... 136
Outside of family communication. ............................................................... 138
Limiting knowledge transfer. ........................................................................ 140
Support general dimension. ...................................................................................... 141
Support internal to social networks............................................................... 141
Support external to social networks. ............................................................. 143
Child focused coping general dimension. ................................................................. 145
Parent led coping........................................................................................... 145
Child led coping. ........................................................................................... 147
Parent actions general dimension.............................................................................. 148
Actions that could apply across contexts. ..................................................... 148
Actions that apply directly to swimming. ..................................................... 150
Planning and organization general dimension. ......................................................... 152
Passive coping general dimension. ........................................................................... 154
Psychological skills general dimension. ................................................................... 156
Short-term strategies general dimension. .................................................................. 157
Links between stressors and coping strategies.......................................................... 157
Stressors and coping strategies ..................................................................... 158
Conclusions. .............................................................................................................. 160
Case study Analyses ....................................................................................................... 161
Family 9 – the beginning. ......................................................................................... 163
The advent of swimming. ............................................................................. 163
The parent dyad............................................................................................. 164
Benefits. .................................................................................................. 164
viii

Stressors and coping strategies ............................................................... 164
Conclusions. ............................................................................................ 168
Family 4 – the end? ................................................................................................... 169
The family and the advent of swimming. ..................................................... 169
The parent dyad............................................................................................. 170
Benefits. .................................................................................................. 170
Stressors and coping strategies. .............................................................. 170
Conclusions. ............................................................................................ 173
Family 7 – the discordant mother. ............................................................................ 174
The family and the advent of swimming. ..................................................... 174
The parent dyad............................................................................................. 175
Benefits. .................................................................................................. 175
Stressors and coping strategies ............................................................... 176
Conclusions. ............................................................................................ 178
Family 10 – the parent coach. ................................................................................... 179
The family and the advent of swimming. ..................................................... 179
The parent dyad............................................................................................. 175
Benefits. .................................................................................................. 180
Stressors and coping strategies. .............................................................. 181
Conclusions. ............................................................................................ 184
Conclusions. .............................................................................................................. 185
CHAPTER V ...............................................................................................................................186
DISCUSSION ..............................................................................................................................186
Benefits ................................................................................................................................. 186
Stressors ................................................................................................................................ 189
Coping Strategies .................................................................................................................. 196
Relationships between Benefits, Stressors, and Coping Strategies ...................................... 202
Sport Parenting Issues ........................................................................................................... 205
Applied Implications............................................................................................................. 206
Parents ............................................................................................................................. 206
Coaches and Clubs .......................................................................................................... 208
Limitations and Future Directions ........................................................................................ 211
Limitations ...................................................................................................................... 211
Future Directions ............................................................................................................ 213
APPENDICES .............................................................................................................................215
Appendix A: Recruitment Flyer...................................................................................................216
Appendix B: Demographic Questionnaire ...................................................................................218
Appendix C: Interview Guide ......................................................................................................224
Appendix D: Swimming Club Permission Letter ........................................................................229
Appendix E: Participant Consent Form .......................................................................................231
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................234

ix

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1. The 12 families’ hierarchy of coping. ............................................................................. 50
Table 2. Participant family demographics .................................................................................... 82
Table 3. Parent Perceived Benefits of Involvement in Swimming ............................................... 84
Table 4. Parent Perceived Stressors of Involvement in Swimming .............................................. 94
Table 5. Parent Perceived Coping Strategies for Involvement in Swimming ............................ 128
Table 6. Family 9 recommendations for other parents ............................................................... 169
Table 7. Family 4 recommendations for other parents ............................................................... 174
Table 8. Family 7 recommendations for other parents ............................................................... 179
Table 9. Family 10 recommendations for other parents ............................................................. 184

x

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
The Case for Youth Sport as a Developmental Context
Organized sport is one of the most popular youth activities in North America, with
estimates of 30-47 million youth participating each year (Brenner, 2007; Ewing & Seefeldt, 2002).
Recent estimates from ESPN suggest approximately 29 million youth between the ages of six and
17 participate each year in the United States (Kelley & Carchia, 2013). While children participate
in sport for a variety of reasons, such as to have fun or be part of a team (Seefeldt, Ewing, & Walk,
1992), developmentally focused research suggests that sport can be important in the development
of behavioral, inter- and intra-personal, and cognitive and motor skills and competencies (Carson,
2009; Danish, Forneris, Hodge, & Heke, 2004; Haywood & Getchell, 2014; Larson, Hansen, &
Moneta, 2006). In comparison to other developmental contexts, Larson et al. suggest youth sport
is good at providing opportunities to develop teamwork and social skills, initiative, and emotional
regulation.
It would be inappropriate to assume that sport is always a positive developmental
experience. Indeed, Coakley (2011) would warn against the assumption that participation is a
proxy for actual development, and is critical of ‘sport evangelists’ who believe sport is good
without critical debate or research. It is important to recognize that sport is not the only
developmental context for youth, with Larson et al. (2006) demonstrating positive outcomes for
youth in other contexts such as performing arts (e.g., music), academic clubs (e.g., student
government), community organizations (e.g., scouts), service based groups (e.g., volunteering) and
faith based groups. Additionally, Larson et al. demonstrated that sport may not be the best context
for the development of positive relationships, particularly with the opposite gender (due to a gender

1

split that exists in many sport), and found that sport is more likely to generate stress than other
contexts. Finally, as summarized by Gould & Carson (2008), in order for sport to be effective as a
youth development context, life skills it must be deliberately taught. There is no ‘car-wash’ effect
whereby simple immersion in the youth sport experience will consistently result in positive youth
development, or similar development between individuals (Coakley, 2011; Gould & Carson,
2008).
One of the contributing factors to differences between a more effective versus less effective
developmental climate in youth sports are the actions and beliefs of significant others: coaches,
parents, administrators, and peers (Coakley, 2011). These significant others can have a positive or
negative influence on developmental outcomes (e.g., Lauer, Gould, Roman, & Pierce, 2010a;
2010b; Leff & Hoyle, 1995; Smith, Smoll, & Cumming, 2007). For example, the Mastery
Approach to Coaching intervention was shown to be effective with coaches as social agents to help
them provide a mastery-involving motivational climate, which subsequently reduced youth athlete
trait anxiety across an athletic season (Smith, Smoll, & Cumming, 2007).
The Case for Studying Sport Parents
There are a number of reasons why the current study will focus on parents as opposed to
other social agents. The primary reason being that there is a need to go beyond coaches as the
primary social agent influencing the youth sport experience. There are a number of intervention
studies aimed at coaches and the environment they create, e.g., the Mastery Approach to Coaching
and the Promoting Adolescent Physical Activity Project (Smith, Smoll, & Cumming, 2007; Project
PAPA, http://www.projectpapa.org/). The coach and the climate they create are important,
however they are only one piece of the puzzle, especially when considering the smaller percentage
of time athletes spend in practice with their coaches compared to with their parents. Despite a

2

recent increase in the number of studies examining sport parents there has not been a reciprocal
increase in the number of interventions or parent education programs, which is reflective of the
current state of understanding of sport parents (Gould, Cowburn, & Pierce, in preparation). Thus,
research directed at lesser understood areas of parent involvement in youth sport is necessary so
interventions and education aimed at parents to improve and enhance the youth sport experience
and talent development can be developed. The remainder of this section will detail what is known
about parents in youth sport and where additional study is required.
There has been a recent proliferation of research dedicated to the influence of parents on
their children in youth sport, again emphasizing the importance of parents as an important social
agent in youth sport (Gould et al. in preparation). The behaviors, actions, and styles required of
parents to successfully foster the development a child within sport have been examined. Through
research on both perceived and actual sport parent behaviors, it is known that children want the
help and support of their parents, that parents need to remain positive, provide logistical and
emotional support, avoid acting outside of their roles (e.g., coaching from the sidelines), and be
positive in their comments and interactions with the children the majority of the time (Gould Lauer,
Rolo, Jannes, & Pennisi 2006; 2008; Holt, Tamminen, Black, Sehn, & Wall, 2008; Kidman,
McKenzie, & McKenzie, 1999; Knight, Boden, & Holt, 2010; Knight, Neeley, & Holt, 2011).
Additionally, parents that use more autonomy supportive parenting styles are better able to
communicate with their children, read the mood of their children, and provide a supportive
structure that allows for their children to take some control in the decision making process (Holt,
Tamminen, Black, Mandigo, & Fox, 2009). Overall, Fredericks and Eccles (2004) ascribed three
key roles for parents when supporting their child in youth sport: namely as role models, as
providers of the sport experience, and as interpreters of the sport experience.

3

While research suggests that nearly two thirds of parents are viewed as having a positive
influence on their child’s behavior and demonstrating appropriate behaviors (Gould, Lauer, Rolo,
Jannes, & Pennisi, 2006; 2008), parents have come under greater focus in recent times due to a
number of high profile incidents of poor parent behavior. In February, 2014, for example, a fight
broke out between parents and coaches at a youth hockey game in North Dakota after parents
entered an opposing team dressing room (“Winnipeg parents toss punches,” 2014), and in May,
2013 John Tomic (father to ATP tennis player Bernard Tomic) assaulted one of his son’s practice
partners, resulting in a suspended prison sentence and a 12-month ban from the ATP tour (Schlink,
2013). Of course, it is not always violent behavior from sport parents that is noticed, with
overbearing actions, emotional blackmail, and bullying toward children also highlighted in the
recent HBO show Trophy Kids (Berg, 2013).
The extreme examples of parent behavior perhaps indicate that we need to look more
closely at how having a child in youth sport can influence parents, and despite the recent increase
in research related to parents relatively fewer studies have examined the outcomes for parents.
This is particularly concerning considering a parent is someone concerned with the development
of a young child in all areas, (e.g., nourishment, protection, and guidance), and parenting is a
process that consists of a series of actions and interactions with the goal of developing the child
(Brooks, 2010). The important phrase here is ‘reciprocal process between parent and child’ that
also allows for the parent to also be influenced by being a parent. Parenting is influenced by three
core components: (1) parents, their developmental background and subsequent personality and
psychological well-being; (2) children and their developmental background and subsequent
personality and psychological well-being; and (3) contextual sources of stress and support (Belsky,
1984). A “sport parent” then, could be defined as a parent with a child in organized sport that is

4

concerned with the development of that child (and his/her self), where the context of sport is used
for development.
Sport parent research has begun to look at the outcomes for parents, including: socialization
outcomes, experiential outcomes, and stress outcomes. Initially, studies examined whether
parenting in sport was indeed a reciprocal process, finding that parent experiences changed to their
behaviors, cognitions, affect, and relationships due to youth sport involvement (Dorsch, Smith, &
McDonough, 2009; Weiss & Hayashi, 1995). Experientially, parents generally have positive
experiences in youth sport (e.g., seeing their child develop physical and social skills), although
some negatives, such as having to deal with the financial costs of youth sport, do exist (Wiersma
& Fifer, 2008). Finally, Harwood and colleagues, found that parents perceive a number of stressors
with youth sport involvement in three broad categories: organizations, competitions, child
development (Harwood, Drew, & Knight, 2010; Harwood & Knight, 2009a; 2009b).
The Case for Stress and Coping
The current study aims to extend the research examining parent outcomes, specifically
stress and coping. Referring briefly back to the definition of parenting, the third core component
of the process is contextual sources of stress and support. It is the contention of this paper that
youth sport is one of those contextual sources of stress and support, and that parenting in youth
sport has the propensity to be an inherently stressful experience. Stress outcomes are particularly
worthy of further study because of their apparent influence on parent behaviors and actions. The
extreme parent behaviors given in the previous examples (e.g., physical violence) suggest that
some parents must be under incredible stress. Therefore potential exists for an understanding of
stressors and coping strategies to be used as a way ameliorate or alter the sport parent experience
and subsequently the experience of a child.

5

A small number of studies have examined youth sport parent stress in both high level tennis
and soccer academies in the United Kingdom (Harwood, Drew, & Knight, 2010; Harwood &
Knight, 2009a; 2009b). The conclusion of these studies was that parents do experience a number
of stressors due to youth sport involvement, and that these stressors can be organized into (1)
developmental stressors relating to the development of their child both within and outside sport,
e.g., child education; (2) organizational stressors associated with the sporting organizations within
which their child is currently placed, e.g., time commitment, finances, organizational bodies; and
(3) competitive stressors regarding competition and competitive performance, e.g., other parents,
match outcomes (Harwood et al. 2010; Harwood & Knight 2009a; 2009b). The sport parent
stressor studies conducted to date have been crucial in establishing sport parent stressors; however,
there are some limitations. These include (1) the small number of studies; (2) the limited number
of sports examined (tennis and soccer) in a limited number of contexts (e.g., elite academy soccer);
and (3) the lack of inclusion of both parents across all levels of each sport assessed (Harwood et
al. 2010; Harwood & Knight 2009a; 2009b).
While the contention of the current study is that youth sport involvement is inherently
stressful, it is not to say that the parent experienced is unbearable or unpleasant. To that end,
Wiersma & Fifer (2008) found that parents perceive many benefits to involvement, such as child
enjoyment, child life-skill development, and getting to spend time with their child. Parents in the
Wiersma and Fifer study also suggested that the ends (parent and child outcomes) probably justify
the means (parent stress), but the means were not necessarily easy. If stress is a potential
contributor to poor parent behavior then understanding how parents cope might help provide
direction for parents to control stress and engage in more positive behaviors.

6

While sport parents have been found to experience stress, how they cope with that stress
has not been examined. Coping has been defined by Lazarus and Folkman (1984, p.141) “as
constantly changing cognitive and behavioral efforts to manage specific external and/or internal
demands that are appraised as taxing or exceeding the resources of the person”. Coping then
represents cognitive and behavioral efforts to manage appraisals of external stressors and internal
emotional responses to stressors, and encompasses actions used to change or avoid a situation or
one’s emotions (Hoar, Kowalski, Gaudreau, & Crocker, 2006; Lazarus, 2001). Unlike sport parent
stress, there are no examples in the literature that have examined sport parent coping exclusively.
This is perhaps logical as research on what causes stress in sport parents is in its infancy, but
surprising nonetheless because of the potential for enhanced coping to reduce stress and improve
both the sport parent and youth sport participant experiences. Therefore a need exists to study
parent coping more directly.
The current gaps and limitations in research on sport parent stressors and coping are
summarized below:
1. Lack of inclusion of both parents of a child: In both of the Harwood and Knight (2009a;
2009b) studies, only four parent-dyads or eight parents were identified as having
completed surveys or were interviewed together. While more parent-dyads may have
been involved, it was a not a direct aim of prior studies to examine the parent-dyad
relationship with regard to stress. Not including both parents potentially limits the
interpretation of stressors and subsequent coping within a family.
2. Limited number of sport contexts examined: Parental stress has been only been studied
in two sports and limited sport contexts by Harwood and Colleagues (2009a; 2009b;
2010). More specifically, tennis and soccer have been examined, representing an

7

individual sport known for its high financial and travel requirements, and a team sport
in that used a youth academy for talent development. Also, each of these studies is
conducted inside the United Kingdom, which is known for a club sport system, which
is known to be different from the school-based system within the United States.
3. Lack of study of parent coping: While some studies have examined parent stressors,
none have directly addressed the coping strategies parents use to deal with stressors
elicited through youth sport involvement. Outside of Knight and Holt (2013), parent
coping is almost completely unstudied for the purposes of understanding the parent
perspective and represents a large gap in the research.
Theoretical Frames for Studying Stress and Coping in the Parents of Youth Swimmers
Stress and coping have been widely researched and consequently have been defined in
different ways, thus the theoretical frames for understanding the two must be discussed (Lazarus,
1999, Hanton, Fletcher, & Coughlan, 2005). The study will use the cognitive-motivationalrelational theoretical model of stress, appraisal, and coping to understand parent stressors because
of its prevalence in both mainstream psychology and sport and exercise psychology (Hanton et al,
2005; Lazarus, 1999). Additionally, two ways on conceptualizing coping attempts, namely the 12
families of coping (Skinner, Edge, Altman, & Sherwood, 2003) and the problem- and emotionfocused coping Folkman & Moskowitz, 2004; Lazarus, 1999; 2001) frameworks, will be used to
categorize and understand parent coping. The operational definitions and theoretical perspectives
of stress and coping will be discussed below.
McGrath (1970) defined stress as “a substantial imbalance between (environmental)
demand and response capability under conditions where failure to meet the demand has important
consequences” (p.20). Stress is the continual process of an individual cognitively evaluating both

8

the situation and personal resources to determine coping capabilities, composed of two appraisals
(Lazarus, 1999). Primary appraisal is the individual’s evaluation as to whether the environmental
demand is relevant to his or her beliefs, values, goal commitments, and situational intentions
(Lazarus, 1999). If an individual believes that a particular situation puts something at stake (i.e.,
goal commitments or situational intentions) or that core values are engaged in the situation (i.e.,
beliefs and values), then there is potential for stress (Lazarus, 1999). Secondary appraisal is a
cognitive-evaluative process that is focused on what can be done about a stressful situation, or the
coping options for a stressful individual-environment transaction (Lazarus, 1999; 2001). The
comparison between primary appraisals and available personal resources (secondary appraisal)
gives rise to certain emotions and coping responses.
Coping is defined by Lazarus and Folkman (1984, p.141) “as constantly changing cognitive
and behavioral efforts to manage specific external and/or internal demands that are appraised as
taxing or exceeding the resources of the person”. Coping then represents cognitive and behavioral
efforts to manage appraisals of external stressors and internal emotional responses to stressors, and
encompasses actions used to change or avoid a situation or one’s emotions (Hoar, Kowalski,
Gaudreau, & Crocker, 2006; Lazarus, 2001). The 12 families of coping hierarchy is an empirically
based taxonomy for identifying general categories of coping strategies, linking families of coping
strategies (higher-order coping groups) to the coping function they serve, in other words, how they
help individuals to adapt to a stressor (Skinner et al., 2003). As an example, information seeking
is a family of coping where the adaptive process is to find additional contingencies for a particular
stressor. The problem- and emotion-focused conceptualization of coping is a more simplistic, but
similar approach to coping. It suggests that if individuals engage in problem-focused coping, they
look to directly manage a stressful situation so as to remove or alter it to no longer be stress, and

9

this is successful when the situation can be managed (e.g., a student who has time keeping issues
using an electronic calendar function). Emotion-focused coping on the other hand is where an
individual regulates their emotions in relation to stressful situation, and this is successful when the
situation cannot be changed (e.g., seeking emotional support from a partner after being made
redundant). Both
The Purposes of the Current Study
This introduction has demonstrated a need to further study sport parent stress sources and
the coping strategies they employ to deal with stress. Based on the limitations of the sport parent
stress studies (Harwood et al., 2010; Harwood & Knight 2009a; 2009b) and the lack of sport parent
coping research, this is the overall purpose of the present study. Specifically, this study has three
purposes:
1. To determine the benefits and stressors experienced by parents with a child
participating in club-based competitive youth swimming.
2. To determine the coping strategies used by the parents of youth swimmers to deal
with the stressors elicited in the study;
3. To conduct sport parent research that includes both parents of a child.
It is expected, based on current literature (Harwood et al., 2010; Harwood & Knight 2009a;
2009b), that parents will experience developmental, organizational stressors, and competitive
stressors (originating from experiences at competitive meets). Additionally, to deal with those
stressors parents will engage in a variety of coping strategies (Folkman & Moskowitz, 2004;
Skinner, Edge, Altman, & Sherwood, 2003), including those that directly address a stressor
(problem-focused coping, e.g., co-ordination of efforts between parents) and those that help
reappraise interpretations of a stressor (emotion-focused coping, e.g., emotional support from

10

spouse). Finally, it is expected that parent-dyads will co-ordinate as a way of reducing perceived
stress and increase the efficiency of coping strategies used.

11

CHAPTER II
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
An estimated 35-47 million children and adolescents are involved in youth sport in the
United States of America (Brenner, 2007; Ewing & Seefeldt, 2002). While children participate in
sport for a variety of reasons, such as to have fun or be part of a team (Seefeldt, Ewing, & Walk,
1992), developmentally focused research suggests that sport can be important in the development
of behavioral, inter- and intra-personal, and cognitive and motor skills and competencies (Carson,
2009; Danish, Forneris, Hodge, & Heke, 2004; Haywood & Getchell, 2014; Larson, Hansen, &
Moneta, 2006). Considering the numbers of youth involved in sport, and its potential for positive
development of youth, it is important that those organizing, coaching, and assisting with youth
sport work to maximize the positive and minimize the negative outcomes.
Many of the outcomes for young people are dependent on the significant others running
organized youth sport, including coaches and parents (e.g., Lauer, Gould, Roman, & Pierce, 2010a;
2010b; Leff & Hoyle, 1995; Smith, Smoll, & Cumming, 2007). While research suggests that nearly
two thirds of parents are viewed as having a positive influence on their child’s behavior and
demonstrating appropriate behaviors (Gould, Lauer, Rolo, Jannes, & Pennisi, 2006; 2008), one
third are perceived as having done something that interferes with the child’s development. In
particular, parents have come under greater focus in recent times due to a number of high profile
incidents of poor parent behavior. In February 2014 a fight broke out between parents and coaches
at a youth hockey game in North Dakota after parents entered an opposing team’s dressing room
(“Winnipeg parents toss punches,” 2014), and in May 2013 John Tomic (father to ATP tennis
player Bernard Tomic) assaulted one of his sons practice partners, resulting in a suspended prison

12

sentence and 12-month ban from the ATP tour (Schlink, 2013). Of course, it is not always violent
behavior from sport parents that is noticed, with overbearing actions, emotional blackmail, and
bullying toward children also highlighted in the recent HBO show Trophy Kids (Berg, 2013). It is
fair to say that many of these parents would probably not have behaved this way without being
under some considerable stress. Despite the apparent stress experience by youth sport parents and
the importance of parent behaviors on youth development and enjoyment outcomes in sport,
relatively less research has been conducted to look at the outcomes of youth sport involvement for
parents (Gould, Cowburn, & Pierce, in preparation). The following review presents pertinent
literature on definitions and roles of sports parents, discusses current research on youth sport
parents, and identifies potential gaps in the research regarding sport parent stress and coping. The
review will conclude by presenting a detailed rationale for the current study.
Parenting
Definitions
The definition of a parent or parenting, similar to that of “family”, can be difficult to
pinpoint, especially where the issues of biology, surrogacy, and legal guardianship are
concerned. In broad terms, Brooks (2010) suggested a parent is someone concerned with the
development of a young child in all areas, e.g., nourishment, protection, and guidance.
Additionally, parenting is a process which consists of a series actions and interactions with the
goal of developing the child (Brooks, 2010). Importantly, parenting is a reciprocal process
between parent and child that also allows for cultural and sociological influences. Belsky (1984)
broke the parenting process down into three main influences:
1. The parent: the developmental history of the parent shapes his/her personality and
psychological well-being, which in turn can influence parental functioning.

13

2. The child: similar to the parent above, the developmental history of the child, his/her
temperament, and personality have an influence on the parent and subsequent parenting.
3. Contextual sources of stress and support: this influence on the parenting process provides
the ecological perspective for the process, and includes sources of stress and support that
affect the parenting process.
A “sport parent” then, could be defined as any parent with a child that is involved in the
context of organized sport. More specifically, a sport parent is an adult who is concerned with the
reciprocal process of development of a child(ren) and his/her self, where the context of sport is
used for that development. Providing a similar model to Belsky (1984), Horn and Horn (2007)
suggested a process of sport parenting that also contains the parent, the child, and the context. The
proposed four stage process includes:


Parent values and beliefs: What beliefs the parents have regarding physical activity and
sport, such as what value they hold for sport based on their own experiences. These
values and beliefs are influenced by the unique backgrounds of the parents and their
child or children. For example, parents may have beliefs regarding ethics and gender
stereotypes in sport, and perceptions regarding their child’s sport competence. A parent
that was a successful high school athlete is likely to value sport generally and their
sport(s) in particular, and may have beliefs regarding its potential for life-skill
development. Conversely, a non-sporting parent may value other development
contexts, such as the performing arts, as more beneficial.



Parent behaviors and actions: The direct behaviors parents undertake with regard to
sport, such as their own participation (e.g., being physically active) or their support for
their child’s participation (e.g., parent emotional or logistical support), including

14

parenting styles. Parent actions, such as providing logistical support for getting to and
from practice, are influenced by their beliefs and values. If a parent values sport they
are more likely to provide logistical support than if they perceive little or no value.


Child beliefs and values: The beliefs and values that children develop with regard to
sport and physical activity, including performance expectations, confidence, and
gender-role stereotypes. These beliefs and values are influenced by parent beliefs and
values (i.e., if a parent perceives sport to be of value, it is likely their child will also),
and operated through parent behaviors both directly and indirectly. As an example, if a
parent has certain beliefs regarding gender stereotypes in sport (e.g., girls not
participating in contact sports) it is likely that their child will also develop similar
beliefs. This is due to direct parent behaviors like not enrolling a daughter in a soccer
program, and indirect parent behaviors like comments regarding women’s soccer on
the television.



Child behaviors and performance: Based on the interactions with and observations of
parents, a child will make decisions regarding involvement in physical activity and
sport, display differing levels of achievement motivation, and vary on affective
reactions to involvement. Again, high value for sport and/or physical activity by the
child will result in decisions regarding participation, persistence, and effort in sport
and/or physical activity.

Thus the process of sport parenting is defined in the same ways as general parenting, where
youth sport is the context specific source of stress, support, and information which forms the third
part of the Belsky (1984) definition of parenting. . Both definitions involve a reciprocal, influential,
relationship between parent and child beliefs, values, and behaviors (based on life experience,

15

etc.), but for sport parenting you have a specific focus on beliefs, values, and behaviors as they
relate specifically to sport, e.g., a parent belief that sport serves as an ideal value for the
development of life-skills because of their own prior involvement in youth sport. The ways in
which both the process of parenting and sport parenting specifically are manifested, in terms of
the expected and typical parent roles will be discussed in the following section. The importance of
reviewing both general and sport specific roles is to generate an understanding of the conflict that
often arises between the two. In short, parents are responsible for helping their child to develop
athletically, but must also balance this with a need to help their child develop more holistically
(e.g., education). While the two are not necessarily mutually exclusive, these roles can conflict and
be a source of stress for parents, which will be discussed further in this review.
Parent Roles
General parenting roles. As parenting is a process, it follows that as children develop and
change with age, the role of parents will also change. The roles required during infancy are
different from those in childhood and adolescence, as children develop both physically and
psychologically, moving from protection and nurturing to a less hands-on guided support (Côté,
1999; Hammer & Turner, 1990). During late childhood and through adolescence, children are in
the midst of developing their own identity (Erikson, 1968), becoming agents of their own social
and emotional development (Larson 2011; Larson & Brown, 2007), learning to differentiate effort
and ability (Dweck, 1999; Nicholls, 1978), reaching the end of the development of fundamental
motor skills and beginning to develop more complex motor skills (Clarke & Metcalfe, 2002), and
going through a period of maturation and increased growth rate until reaching their final adult
stature (Malina, Bouchard, & Bar-Or, 2004). Therefore, during late childhood and adolescence,
there are rapid cognitive, social, and physical changes.

16

The relative importance of significant others also moves from parents during early
childhood, toward peers and other adults during late childhood and into adolescence, representing
a move toward being more independent (Hammer & Turner, 1990; Harter, 1978). Harter’s model
of perceived competence describes how sources of competence information change from parents
in childhood, toward peers and self-feedback in adolescence (Harter, 1978). During adolescence,
the need to conform to peer expectations and the development of identity, will lead to behaviors
and actions that may be contrary to prior behaviors, and parent expectations and beliefs. Attempts
to develop identity, understand the roles and expectations of adult life, and the need to conform
closer to peer ideals than parent ideals, makes this time particularly challenging for both the child
and the parent (Hammer & Turner, 1990). The parent role changes from encouragement in infancy
and childhood, to providing the child/adolescent space to develop as an individual. However,
parents also need to provide a stable family base, to give the child the reassurance and confidence
to step out and develop independently (Hammer & Turner, 1990). Parents must also act as a
counselor, to help their offspring understand hormonal changes and identity striving attempts
during adolescence (Hamner & Turner, 1990).
Sport specific parent roles. As Belsky (1984) and Horn and Horn (2007) suggested,
parenting is a process, and therefore it can be expected that the roles of parents will change as their
child(ren) age, mature physically, and develop their sport specific skills and talents. There is a
plethora of research on youth sport parenting, covering the antecedents to sport parent behavior,
the perceived and actual behaviors, consequences of sport parenting, and the outcomes of sport
parenting for parents (Gould, Cowburn, & Pierce, in preparation). While the main focus of this
literature review are some of the outcomes of youth sport parenting for parents, an overview of
research pertaining to the importance of parent actions and styles, and how they relate to ideal

17

parent roles will be presented. This provides a rationale as to why it is important to better
understand how youth sport participation effects parents, as they can influence the youth sport
experience in both positive and negative ways. Only the most pertinent literature will be presented
here as it is beyond the scope and direction of this study to review all the sport parenting literature
(see Gould, Cowburn, & Pierce for a full review).
Perceived sport parent behaviors. Perceived parent behaviors are those that focus on how
the behaviors of parents are perceived by another person, whether that is their child or their child’s
coach. Knight, Boden, and Holt (2010) sampled 42 male and female adolescent tennis players to
determine their perceptions of desirable parent behaviors. The first desired behavior that children
held for their parents was that parents respect the etiquette of tennis and not make a spectacle of
themselves or their children. Secondly, it was felt that parents should only provide practical advice
on things that they are qualified to speak about, such as diet and preparation, but not become
involved in coaching. Therefore, parents need to avoid giving technical or coaching advice unless
the child perceives their parent to be suitably qualified to offer technical advice. Third, parents
should refrain from providing technical advice, restrict comments to those regarding effort and
attitude, and ensure that any non-verbal communications match any positive verbal comments.
Using a similar study design, Knight, Neeley, and Holt (2011) interviewed 36 team sport
female adolescents to determine preferred parent behaviors. Results were similar to the Knight et
al. (2010) study, but were grouped on temporal characteristics: before, during, or after competition.
Before competition the important parent behaviors were helping athletes prepare physically and
mentally, i.e., check that they had the right equipment, were there on time, and acting appropriately
to keep their child calm. During the competition the important behaviors were encouraging the
whole team, focusing on effort and not outcome, staying positive throughout the game, not drawing

18

undue attention to themselves or athletes, and maintaining control of emotions. Finally, after
competition, providing positive and realistic game feedback was the most important parent
behavior, with positive feedback given in the team situation, and more constructive feedback given
one on one.
Gould, Lauer, Rolo, Jannes, and Pennisi, (2006; 2008) conducted a pair of studies that
examined coach perceptions of tennis player parent behaviors. Using a sample of 24 experienced
coaches from junior tennis, Gould et al. (2008) investigated what coaches saw as appropriate and
inappropriate behaviors from parents. Coaches perceived many positive behaviors from parents,
including taking an appropriate perspective on tennis matches, providing financial, emotional, and
logistical support, and having good emotional control at matches. The negative behaviors seen by
coaches included being focused on outcome and winning, controlling player experiences, being
overbearing and pushy, being negative and critical, and letting non-tennis matters interfere with
on-court action. Gould et al. (2006) followed this initial study by conducting a national survey of
132 junior tennis coaches in the U.S. to determine the extent to which the issues found in the
previous study are prevalent. Some 59% of coaches described parents as having a positive
influence on their child’s involvement in tennis, with only 36% of parents being described as
having a negative impact.
In summary, several important conclusions regarding perceived parent behaviors can be
derived from this research. The first is that sport parents play a vital role in the experiences of
youth athletes and that youth athletes want the help and support of their parents. Second, several
behaviors are seen as positive for sport parents, including: providing unconditional love and
logistical support, staying positive, and focusing on effort rather than outcome. Finally, the
negative behaviors to avoid include being negative or pushy, having unrealistic expectations,

19

acting outside their roles (e.g., coaching from the sidelines), and bringing unnecessary attention to
themselves or their child. Not surprisingly, these findings are not diametrically opposite from
findings in general parenting, which suggest that parenting the pre-adolescent and adolescent is
trying to find a balance that supports the child, but allows affiliation with peers and other adults as
well as the development of some independence (Hammer & Turner, 1990).
Actual sport parent behaviors. In addition to assessing athletes’ and coaches’ perceptions
of positive and negative sport parent behaviors, other investigators have observed actual behaviors
in which parents engage. Holt, Tamminen, Black, Sehn, and Wall (2008), for example, conducted
a study to investigate the interactions of parents with their 10-14 year old children in the sport of
soccer. Children kept an audio diary of interactions with their parents during practice and
competitions, and researchers made observations of parents at games and interviewed all the
children and parents within a family. The study elicited several verbal responses of parents and
some specific events or regulations that drove behaviors. Verbal responses were placed on a
continuum from “more supportive” to “more controlling”. The first of these verbal responses was
praise and encouragement (35% of comments), followed by performance-contingent feedback
(5%), instruction (35%), striking a balance between positive and negative feedback (10%),
negative comments (10%), and derogatory comments (5%). Events and regulations driving parent
behavior and influencing verbal comments included league policies that were in place to keep
parents from misbehaving, parent empathy, emotional intensity, experience, and knowledge. More
specifically, having empathy for one’s child when the child did or did not do well influenced verbal
responses (e.g., poor performance resulting in more controlling behaviors and non-positive
comments), as did the intensity of emotions during competitions resulting from game

20

circumstances and other parent’s actions. Finally, those parents with a greater level of knowledge
and/or experience gave more performance-contingent feedback.
In another study, Kidman, McKenzie, and McKenzie (1999) developed the Parent
Observation Instrument for Sports Events (POISE) to examine the verbal comments made during
competitive sport events. Observing 250 parents in seven sports, it was found that 47% of all
comments made were positive, including reinforcing and hustle. Some 35% of all comments were
negative, including correcting behaviors, witticism (a comment containing irony, ridicule, or
sarcasm), and contradicting. The remaining 18% of comments were neutral, for example,
direct/indirect/rhetorical questioning, and social.
The extent of the literature in actual parent behaviors is relatively small compared to
perceived or desired behaviors, and focuses on verbal comments made by parents. Even though
there is limited research on actual parent behaviors, it is becoming clear that comments are
generally positive, but there is a significant percentage that could be considered negative. Future
research needs to continue examination of the motivations behind the comments made, and
consider how parents can be educated to reduce the number of negative comments. Additionally,
while efforts have been made by Holt and colleagues (2008) to observe parents, actions and nonverbal communications appear not to have been researched in depth to this point. This lack of nonverbal communication research is something that needs to be examined in more detail, as Knight
et al. (2009) showed that a mismatch between verbal and non-verbal communications (e.g., giving
praise whilst shaking the head) has an impact on youth athletes.
Sport parenting styles. Another key area of parenting research is parenting styles, defined
by Darling and Steinberg (1993) as “a constellation of attitudes toward the child that are
communicated to the child and that, taken together, create an emotional climate in which the

21

parent’s behaviors are expressed” (p.488). Parenting styles create an emotional climate that reflects
a general approach for parenting across contexts (Holt et al., 2009). Parent goals for socialization
influence both parenting styles and practices, and parenting styles can directly and indirectly
influence adolescent outcomes (Darling & Steinberg, 2003). Parenting practices are different from
parenting styles as they are domain-specific actions that direct the behaviors expected of their
child, whereas parenting styles are non-domain-specific beliefs that guide what parenting practices
should be used (Darling & Steinberg, 2003; Holt et al. 2009).
In developing a theory of parenting styles, Baumrind (1991) used two dimensions;
responsiveness and demandingness to create four overall parenting styles: authoritarian,
authoritative, permissive, and rejecting-neglecting. Responsiveness refers to the amount of
autonomy support provided by parents, and how reactive they are to the needs of their children.
The demandingness dimension includes behaviors that represent control and supervision of a child,
and the level of confrontation. Authoritative parents are high on both dimensions, authoritarian
parents are high in demandingness and low in responsiveness, passive parents are low in
demandingness and high in responsiveness, and rejecting-neglecting parents are low on both
dimensions. This brief description of parenting styles does not cover all the parenting styles that
have been posited in the empirical literature but it does represent an easy typology of one of the
more popular approaches that have been used to understand parenting styles.
Holt, Tamminen, Black, Mandigo, and Fox (2009) used a qualitative methodology that
involved a year-long observation of 56 youth sport parents, and interviews with each of these
parents and 36 of their children to examine parenting styles in sport. Holt et al. (2009) reached five
conclusions from the study, the first was that autonomy supportive parents were better able to bidirectionally communicate with their children, read the mood of their children, and provide a

22

supportive structure that also allowed some autonomy in decision making. The second conclusion
reflects the opposite for controlling parents; they provided less input on decisions, had high
structure, and were less able to communicate and read their children. Third, the behavior of the
child was a factor in parenting style, such that when youth satisfactorily demonstrated responsible
behaviors then the parents adjusted their style to be more autonomy supportive. Fourth, some
parent-dyads demonstrated differing parenting styles and this highlights a need to study both
parents where applicable. This is especially important because most of the sport parent research
conducted to date has only examined one parent. Finally, the styles and practices of parents varied
somewhat across contexts, so sport parenting is a multifaceted phenomenon.
Sapieja, Dunn, and Holt (2011) used quantitative survey measures of child perfectionism
(Sport Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale-2; Gotwals & Dunn, 2009) and perceived paternal
and maternal parenting styles (Parenting Style Inventory-2; Darling & Toyokawa, 1997) with 194
male youth soccer players. Healthy perfectionists and non-perfectionists had significantly higher
perceptions of authoritative parenting than unhealthy perfectionists. Therefore authoritative
parenting may be crucial in developing healthy perfectionist tendencies or in avoiding unhealthy
perfectionism. These findings also show that parenting styles can have important outcomes on
child behaviors and cognitions.
The difference between the Sapieja, Dunn, and Holt (2011) study and the Holt, Tamminen,
Black, Mandigo, and Fox (2009) study were the examination of perceived versus actual parent
styles, and while they do not represent the entirety of the research in youth sport parenting styles,
they indicate that further research is warranted. These two sport parenting styles studies reflect
similar results to parenting styles literature for general parenting that demonstrates that parents can

23

have differing styles than their partner (Winsler, Madigan, & Aquilino, 2005), and parenting styles
can influence child behaviors (Brand, Hatzinger, Beck, & Holsboer-Trachsler, 2009).
Parent influence on psychological characteristics of developing excellence. A topic of
considerable interest to researchers has been how sport parenting is related to the psychological
characteristics for developing excellence in young athletes, and how parents can best help their
child develop the correct physical and psychological skills needed for elite performance, see Gould
and Cowburn (in press) for a detailed review of performance psychology. The changing nature of
the parenting process is reflected in the research on parental involvement in talent development
(Bloom, 1985; Côté, 1999; Durand-Bush & Salmela, 2002), such that as a child matures and
progresses through stages of talent development, the role of the parents must also change. Based
on the original research of Bloom (1985) into the development of excellence, Côté (1999) and
Durand-Bush and Salmela (2002) suggest four stages of athletic talent development, and these are
described below along with what experts have contended are parent specific roles within each
stage:


Sampling stage (Côté, 1999): The sampling stage represents the beginning of sport
development for children, where the emphasis is on getting involved, and having fun and
excitement in sport. It occurs between the ages of 6 and 13 approximately and is the stage
in which a child is experimenting with a number of sports and building a range of motor
skills (Clarke & Metcalfe, 2002). The parent roles are to provide opportunities for children
to become involved in and enjoy sport, without the pressure of intense training. Parents
should help all children within a family participate in a range of extracurricular activities.
There is also evidence that parents can recognize skill and thus encourage certain activities
over others.

24



Specializing stage (Côté, 1999): The second stage, specialization, is where a child athlete
decides to pursue a smaller number of sports and thus develop skills that will help them
excel in a particular sport. Children are usually aged between 13-15 years and critical
incidents cause children to pursue one or two sports over others from the sampling stage.
The role of parents include emphasizing both sporting and academic achievement, making
financial and time commitments to their children, especially with regard to investing in
more structured training practices. Finally, parents tend to develop a burgeoning interest in
their child-athletes’ sport such that they can provide support.



Investment stage (Côté, 1999): This third stage of development is where a child makes the
decision to try be an elite athlete in one particular sport and puts forth extraordinary effort
in pursing the skills necessary to be successful. In the investment years child-athletes make
an increasing commitment to pursuing excellent and elite status in one sport, usually after
15 years of age. Parents in this stage take a deep interest in the child-athletes sport, help
their child-athlete fight back from setbacks that prevent progression (e.g., injury), with
emotional support being particularly important. Due to limited time and financial
resources, parents exhibit different behaviors to each of their children with more support
and attention going toward a talented sibling over a less talented sibling to maximize
potential.



Maintenance stage (Durand-Bush & Salmela, 2002): This final stage refers to athletes that
have achieved elite status and are attempting to maintain competitiveness over an extended
period of time. Parents in this stage provided emotional support, with a much reduced direct
involvement level due to the age of their now adult-athlete and more support coming
directly from coaches.

25

Essentially then, parents are responsible for providing continued logistical, emotional, and
financial support through all four stages, particularly as the child-athlete faces adversity. As the
child-athlete becomes more committed and expert at sport through the specialization, investment,
and maintenance years, the direct roles of parents as providers and interpreters of the sporting
experience is reduced as autonomous and self-determined regulation on the part of the athlete
becomes more prevalent (Côté, 1999; Durand-Bush & Salmela, 2002; MacNamara, Button, &
Collins, 2010a; 2010b). Similar findings are reflected by Gould et al. (2010a; 2010b), who found
several positive parent behaviors that facilitated development of elite tennis players, including a
focus on holistic psychosocial development, various forms of support, and emotionally intelligent
conversations. Whereas negative behaviors that hindered development include a focus on winning
over development, controlling behaviors, and being overly critical. Importantly, although all
athletes interviewed in the Gould et al. (2010b) study made it to the elite level, parent-athlete
interactions were not the same for all athletes. Gould et al. (2010) were able to identify three
pathways (smooth, difficult, and turbulent) that represented the quality of the parent-athlete
relationship across the first three stages of athletic talent (Bloom, 1985). Turbulent pathway
athletes were characterized by increasing negative parent behaviors across their involvement,
particularly parental pressure. Smooth pathway parents also pushed their children, indicating
parents need to find the right balance between pushing their child and promoting a balanced
lifestyle. Parent child-athlete relationships identified as difficult fell between these two extremes.
Conclusions on parent roles in sport. Based on the literature, it is clear that there are some
general behaviors, styles, and actions in which sport parents should engage, e.g., unconditional
emotional and logistical support. However, there is a limited literature on how to integrate all of
the sport parent research in a way that helps parents make sense of a complicated system. Two

26

examples of theoretical models that attempt to integrate this literature will be presented, each gives
parents more general guidelines for directing their behaviors in sport. In the first example,
Fredricks and Eccles (2004) reviewed sport parent literature and ascribed three key roles for sport
parents:
1. Role models: Role models are significant others that model or execute behaviors necessary
to be successful in a particular context, in this case physical activity and sport. Parents
should act as role models by being active themselves and modeling athletic participation
to increase the likelihood of having children that participate in sport. Parent modeling is
particularly important for girls as they have relatively fewer sport role models from media.
Parents also need to demonstrate and reinforce pro-social behaviors.
2. Interpreters of the sport experience: Children are not always mature enough to recognize
or understand all aspects of the sport environment (e.g., gender stereotypes) and
consequently significant others explain either these aspects, and their values regarding
them, consciously or unconsciously through their words and actions. Parent values and
beliefs are related to child perceptions of competency, interest, and participation.
Additionally, parental pressure is linked to child outcomes, including outcomes such as
stress, anxiety, burnout, and enjoyment. In general, parents hold gender stereotyped beliefs
for sport, associating more value for males than females due to perceptions of more athletic
talent. Finally, child perceptions of parent beliefs are more highly related to child selfperceptions than actual parent beliefs.
3. Providers of the sport experience: Due to the nature of organized sport (e.g., specialized
venues, required equipment), children require provision from significant others in order to
take part. Parents support and encourage athletic involvement in a number of ways,

27

including logistic and emotional support. Parent encouragement is positively related to
child sport involvement, but over-involved parents can reduce enjoyment and lead to
athlete burnout.
In the second example, Knight and Holt (2014) conducted a study where they interviewed
youth tennis players, retired tennis players, tennis parents, and tennis coaches to develop a
grounded theory of optimal parent involvement in tennis. The model developed by Knight and
Holt has three components of parent involvement, with examples and strategies for each
component. The first is that parents and athletes need to share and communicate their goals for
sport involvement so that they are in agreement and effort level or motivation on one side is not
greater than the other. Naturally, these goals will be influenced by demographic variables, such as
age or playing standard, and tennis experiences and transitions. Secondly, parents need to develop
an understanding motivational climate where they are perceived as understanding or attempting to
understand child experiences, e.g., the challenges of competition. Finally, parents should engage
in parenting practices at competitions that will enhance the youth athlete experience and chances
of success, e.g., parents managing their own emotions. This category was deemed more flexible
as the needs of each child will be different, so this component requires parents to be reflexive.
The Knight and Holt (2014) model is an important first step in understanding parent
involvement in youth sport, and certainly suggests a workable model for tennis parents, but it does
have a few limitations. Firstly, it is primarily a tennis model, limiting the usefulness to parents in
other sports. Secondly, the participants cover a wide range of ages (12-24 years) and while this
made for a general model of parenting, there is a risk that some detail was lost in determining
parent behaviors which are important at specific age groups. Using the Côté (1999) stages of
athletic talent development, parent roles change depending on the current stage of athlete

28

development (e.g., sampling vs. specializing) and as such there are different parent behaviors
required. Knight and Holt give the example of the differences between under-10 players and
players transitioning into University tennis having differing levels of optimum parent involvement.
This level of detail was not determinable from the sample and subsequent analysis, and may be an
important avenue for further investigation. Finally, the study was methodologically rigorous by
including players, their coaches, and their parents in individual interviews, and subsequently
utilizing focus groups to confirm findings. However, parents were not included for every player,
thus information from some players and coaches was not triangulated with parents, reducing the
trustworthiness of some of the data. Acknowledging that parenting is a reciprocal process between
parent(s) and child, this grounded theory model of optimal parent involvement provides a good
rationale for how improving the parent experience in youth sport can have a positive influence on
the youth athlete experience. For example, if parents have reduced levels of stress then they are
more likely to be able to control their emotions and thus enhance the youth athlete experience. It
is important then to understand the consequences of youth sport involvement for parents, and this
literature will be reviewed next.
Consequences of Sport Parenting and Sport Involvement on Sport Parents
Relatively less research has looked at the consequences of youth sport involvement on the
parents themselves. This relative lack of research is interesting considering that parenting is
considered a reciprocal process between the parent and the child (Belsky, 1984). Conducting
research on reciprocal parent outcomes is important due to the influence parents can have on
outcomes for youth athletes, as previously discussed, and the high level of logistical, financial,
time, and emotional support parents must provide. Additionally, if one of the purposes of
understanding sport parenting is to improve the youth sport experience by minimizing negative

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outcomes for youth, then the same must be true for their parents. The better understood the youth
sport experience for parents, the more positive it can be made through parent education and sport
policy. Of the research that has been completed looking at outcomes for parents involved in youth
sport, there are three main categories: experiential outcomes (e.g., positive experiences such as
seeing their child develop, or getting to interact with other parents), socialization outcomes (e.g.,
increased understanding of their child’s sport), and stress outcomes (e.g., increased stress caused
by parents needing to select appropriate coaches for their child). All parent consequences from
youth sport involvement are important and have the potential to alter the youth sport experience.
However, one of the components of the definition of the parenting process was contextual sources
of stress and support. Parent stress is potentially the easiest of the parent consequence components
to alter with regard to improving athlete and parent experiences. As such, literature regarding
experiential and socialization outcomes will be reviewed in brief, but a greater focus will be put
into sport parent stress outcomes, followed by research on coping.
Parent Experiential Outcomes
A few studies have examined general sport parent experiences, reporting on the costs and
benefits associated with being a sport parent. Wiersma and Fifer (2008) used a focus group
methodology with 55 youth sport parents to investigate the joys and challenges of being a youth
sport parent. Wiersma and Fifer also identified factors that explained parental misconduct and
emphasized some of the responsibilities adults felt they needed to fulfil due to their involvement
in youth sport. Positive experiences included parental satisfaction (e.g., being able to observe their
child’s development and success), the opportunity to interact with other people (e.g., their child
and other parents), as well as perceived benefits for their child, such as life skill development,
affiliation associated with being on a team, enhanced self-concept, and avoiding computer games.

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Negative or challenging experiences included providing instrumental support (e.g., finances, time
cost), providing emotional support (e.g., post-game talks, balancing fun and competition), and
seeing pressures being exerted on their child both in general (e.g., school-sport balance) and
specifically in sport (e.g., negative coaches). Parents also identified several characteristics of youth
sport that were stressful (e.g., nature of sport, age of child, quality of league and officials) and
situational triggers (e.g., inequality, self-regulated behavior, unintended competitive reactions) as
factors that explain parent misconduct. Finally, parents expressed beliefs about the importance of
modeling appropriate behaviors to young people, which included adult influences over behavior
(e.g., coaches needing to model appropriate behaviors) and the need to put sport into a broader
perspective relative to life and development so they could act in appropriate ways (e.g.,
emphasizing effort over outcome).
As part of a study that looked at the experiences of parent-coaches, Weiss and Fretwell
(2005) found a number of benefits and detriments for parent-coach youth sport involvement. A
parent-coach was defined as a youth sport parent who is also the coach of a team and participants
in the study were six youth soccer players from six under-12 soccer teams, their fathers who were
also their coaches, and two teammates. The purposes of the study included assessing the young
athletes’ perceptions of their parent-coaches, the parent-coaches, and the teammates of the childathlete. However, for brevity and considering the purpose of the present study, only the results of
the parent-coaches will be reported here. The positive aspects of being a parent-coach included
taking pride in seeing the son’s achievements, providing motivation for coaching, positive social
interactions with one’s son and his teammates, opportunities to impart skills and values, enjoying
coaching one’s son, and spending quality time with one’s son. The negative aspects of parentcoaching included difficulty in separating coach and parent roles, dealing with rebellious behavior

31

from one’s son, time constraints, and talking to other parents about their behavior. Other issues
regarded differential treatment toward their sons were discussed, and included, the inability to
separate the parent-son from the coach-player role, having insider information about their son and
his team (e.g., practice feedback from son), and holding higher expectations, placing more pressure
on, paying more attention to, and giving more or less reinforcement and recognition to their sons
versus his teammates.
Literature on parent experiential outcomes showed the general sport parent experience
contains both positive or rewarding and negative or challenging accounts (Wiersma & Fifer, 2008;
Weiss & Fretwell, 2005). Specifically, positive aspects of the experience included parents getting
to spend time interacting with their child, the opportunity to provide encouragement and seeing
their child be successful in an achievement context, and seeing positive development of sports
skills and life skills (e.g., teamwork). While negative aspects involved the time demands required
in youth sport and the conflicts those demands create relative to other parent roles, communication
with their child, especially when behavior does not meet expectations, and balancing parent push
between their expectations and child abilities. A number of unique challenges are also associated
when one takes on the role of a parent coach for their child.
Parent Socialization Outcomes
Research on young athlete socialization suggests that it is a reciprocal process, in that,
parents influence the youth sport experiences of their children and the involvement in youth sport
with their child alters parental experiences. Some studies in this area examine both the influence
of parent on child while others study the influence of the child on the parent. Given the purpose of
this review and need for brevity, however, only the results pertaining to influences on parents will
be discussed here.

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Snyder and Purdy (1982) interviewed 15 youth sport parents, whose children were enrolled
in organized youth sport, to examine the direction of socialization effects for sport involvement.
Results demonstrated the existence of socialization, reverse socialization, and reciprocal
socialization. Reverse socialization was particularly strong for mothers, but evidence also
suggested reciprocal effects whereby a parent may have socialized a child into sport (due to their
own previous experiences with a sport) but also experienced greater interest in sports and attended
his/her child’s sporting events as a result of his/her child’s sport involvement. Overall,
socialization effects included parents developing a greater interest in their child’s sport: attending
sporting events, reading articles about the sport, and watching it on television either by themselves
or as a family. Parents also talked about things they had learned through their child’s sporting
involvement, including rules, game strategies, the emotions experienced, and personality traits
revealed through their child’s involvement in sport. Interestingly, while some parents, particularly
fathers, learned relatively less due to previous sport involvement, others reported learning about
an entirely new sport, such as gymnastics.
Weiss and Hayashi (1995) conducted a study to examine socialization effects in youth
gymnastics. They administered a questionnaire to 24 youth gymnasts and interviewed 39 of their
parents to examine reciprocal socialization effects on the parents due to youth sport involvement.
Results for child-parent socialization were classified into four categories: time commitment,
financial commitment, impact on parent’s sport-related interests, and benefits derived from child’s
sport involvement. With regard to time commitment, most parents felt that their home life (70%)
and personal lives (72%) revolved around gymnastics, spending on average 6 hours a week for
mothers and 4 hours a week for fathers on gymnastics. Despite this large commitment to time,
72% of parents suggested they would spend an equal amount of time on their child regardless of

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activity. Financial commitments related to gymnastics were on average $3000 a year, representing
approximately 5% of the family income, which was rated as “some” to a “little” financial burden
by 86% of parents. Parents indicated that their sport-related interests changed due to their
children’s gymnastics involvement, with 89.7% reporting an increase in their attendance at
gymnastics meets, 79.5% indicated an increase in sport-related reading, 59% watched more sport
on television, 43.6% subscribed to sport magazines, and 38.5% increased their own physical
activity behaviors. Finally, benefits derived from gymnastics involvement included, but were not
limited to, pride in their child (36%), easier parenting due to child goal-focus and discipline (25%),
pleasure (23%), feeling good about child achievements (21%), better relationship with their child
(18%), and personal growth (15%).
Dorsch, Smith, and McDonough (2009) also examined parents’ perceptions of child-parent
socialization, conducting five semi-structured focus groups with 26 parents of youth athletes
enrolled in summer team sport leagues (baseball, basketball, softball, and soccer). In contrast to
the previous studies by Snyder and Purdy (1985) and Weiss and Hayashi (1995), Dorsch et al.
interviewed parents not only regarding changes in their behaviors, but also their cognitions, affect,
and relationships. Reported parent behavior changes related to participation (e.g., becoming
involved as a coach or increasing own participation) and support and sacrifice (e.g., financial
investment) were very similar to the result of previous studies (Snyder & Purdy, 1982; Weiss &
Hayashi, 1995). However, important information on parent cognitions was revealed and classified
into three subthemes: (1) awareness (e.g., regarding child ability level and learning appropriate
parent behaviors at competitions), (2) goals (e.g., adapting own goals to their child’s and increased
competitiveness), and (3) knowledge (e.g., appreciation for the difficulty of the sport and
consideration of scholarship options). Parent affect also was reported to have altered through youth

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sport involvement, specifically emotional connection with sport (e.g., anxiety for outcomes),
emotional management (e.g., coping with disappointment), and reactive emotional experiences
(e.g., anger/frustration with child, family, or context). Finally, parent relationships were changed
in terms of communication (e.g., adapting parent-child communication styles, tempering spouse
expectations of child), parent-child relationship (e.g., enhanced child-parent relationship, childparent friction), and relationships with parents of peers (e.g., impression management, peer social
networking). Additional to these socializing factors, parents discussed three potential moderators
of socialization that were targeted in the focus groups: (1) child age – as children age and become
more involved in sport, the requirements are greater and thus socialization effects increase; (2)
past sport experience of parents – those parents with no prior sport participation underwent greater
socialization change than those with some prior sport involvement; (3) and parent and child gender
– parents were aware that their own gender and that of their child influenced relationships and
sport setting behaviors. Three other moderators were also elicited via the focus groups: child
temperament, the level of sport focus within the local community, and individual versus team
sports.
The literature regarding child and parent socialization then reflects a reciprocal process
between parent and child (Snyder & Purdy, 1982). For parents this results in a number of outcomes,
including: greater logistical involvement in their child’s sport, changes to participation in sport
and/or activities related to child’s sport, increased knowledge of their child’s sport, other cognition
changes such as increased awareness of behaviors, changes in affect relating to increased
emotional investment, and changes to relationships between parent and child, between a parent
and the parents of another child, and between parents of the same child (Dorsch, Smith, &
McDonough, 2009; Snyder & Purdy, 1982; Weiss & Hayashi, 1995).

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Parent Stress Outcomes
Before reviewing the research that has examined parent stress outcomes in sport, it is
important to review definitions of stress and appraisal, as these concepts are central to the current
study. A brief review of concepts will be followed by research on general stressors that also may
be pertinent to sport parents, and then research on sport parent stress outcomes. Coping, another
central theme in the current study, will be reviewed in a later section.
Stress and the appraisal process. Stress, appraisal, and coping are concepts and
constructs that have long been discussed both in the general psychology (Lazarus, 1999; Lazarus
& Folkman, 1984) and sport psychology literatures (e.g., Gould, Jackson, & Finch, 1993; Scanlan,
Stein, & Ravizza, 1991; Woodman & Hardy, 2001). There have been a number of different
conceptualizations and definitions of stress, with stress being viewed as a stimulus, a response to
an event or action, and the relational transaction between the individual, environment, and
appraisal of the current situation (Cooper, Dewe, & O’Driscoll, 2001; Fletcher, Hanton, and
Mellalieu, 2006). The current literature review will focus on the transactional conceptualization of
stress and particularly the cognitive-motivational-relational theoretical model of stress, appraisal,
and coping (CMRT; Lazarus, 1999) due to its prevalence in the sport psychology literature
(Hanton, Fletcher, & Coughlan, 2005).
Stress and appraisal. McGrath (1970) defined stress as “a substantial imbalance between
(environmental) demand and response capability under conditions where failure to meet the
demand has important consequences” (p.20). The McGrath definition introduced some key
concepts, namely the environment, the individual, and the relational transaction between the two
that requires cognitive evaluation of both. The CMRT suggests that stress does not exist within an
individual or within the environment but the transaction between the two, and as such is a

36

continuous process (Lazarus, 1999). On that basis, the definition of a stress within the CMRT is
the appraisal of the environment by the individual. Additionally, a stressor is an environmental
demand on an individual, and strain is a negative psychological, physical, or behavioral response
to a stressor (Cooper et al., 2001; Fletcher et al., 2006). Lazarus (1999) advocated for the use of
the term appraisal to represent the cognitive evaluation of stress. Appraisals by the individual of
self and the environment give the two relational meaning, and allow for the transactional nature of
the stress process (Dewe, O’Driscoll, & Cooper, 2012; Lazarus, 1999). There are two forms of
appraisal in the Lazarus stress model (1966; 1999): primary and secondary. Both primary and
secondary appraisals occur simultaneously and as part of the same ongoing process, but they are
described separately below for ease of understanding (Lazarus, 1999).
Primary appraisal is the individual’s evaluation as to whether the environmental demand is
relevant to his or her beliefs, values, goal commitments, and situational intentions (Lazarus, 1999).
If an individual believes that a particular situation puts something at stake (i.e., goal commitments
or situational intentions) or that core values are engaged in the situation (i.e., beliefs and values)
then there is potential for stress, with goal commitments having a potentially greater influence than
values, as people are not always inclined to act on values (Lazarus, 1999). Lazarus (1999) posits
three potential transactional outcomes: harm/loss – damage that has already occurred, threat – the
possibility of damage, and challenge – where individuals put forth effort and engage with the
demand. Additionally, Lazarus (2001) suggested a fourth appraisal, whereby the transaction
between individual and environment can actually facilitate goal acquisition, referred to as benefit
(Dewe et al., 2012). A benefit appraisal occurs when appraisal of potential outcomes are positive,
e.g., personal resources exceed the perceived demand. Alternatively, if an individual perceives no
values at stake or core values engaged, then there will be no stress response (Lazarus, 1999).

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Secondary appraisal is a cognitive-evaluative process that is focused on what can be done
about a stressful situation, or the coping options for a stressful individual-environment transaction
(Lazarus, 1999; 2001). All four of the primary appraisals (harm/loss, threat, challenge, and benefit)
can have future-oriented implications that have concurrent secondary appraisals. However,
primary and secondary appraisals are not mutually exclusive and often occur simultaneously or as
a function of one another (Lazarus, 1999; 2001). Threat and challenge are the most future-oriented
appraisals as their outcomes are uncertain, one usually predominates in a demanding situation,
dependent on how confident we are that we have the personal resources to respond to the situation
(Lazarus, 1999; 2001). The comparison between primary appraisals and available personal
resources is the secondary appraisal and leads to evaluation of blame/credit – not just an
attribution, but evaluation as to who and what, coping potential – an evaluation of how well an
individual can act to ameliorate or eliminate harm or threat to bring about challenge or benefit, and
future expectations – an evaluation of how things will change in the future (Lazarus, 1999; 2001)
Combinations of primary and secondary appraisals form the evaluation of the personenvironment transaction and give rise to certain emotions and coping resources. Lazarus (1999)
closely ties emotions to the psychological stress process, such that primary appraisals of a situation
will result in specific emotional outcomes. Broadly, appraisals of harm/loss and threat will result
in more negative emotions, and appraisals of challenge and benefit will result in more positive
emotions (Dewe et al., 2012; Lazarus, 1999; 2001). In this way, anxiety is a negative emotion
associated with uncertain existential threats derived from primary appraisals of stressors and
coping resources (Lazarus, 1999; 2001).
Stress has been widely studied in sport, particularly the links between stress, cognitive and
somatic anxiety, and performance (Hanin, 1980; 1986; Hardy, 1990; Hardy & Fazey, 1986; Jones,

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1995). More recent research also has begun to look at sources of stress, with two major groups of
stressors identified in sport: organizational stressors and competitive stressors (Fletcher & Hanton,
2003; Fletcher, Hanton, & Mellalieu, 2006). Although stress has been examined in many ways for
sport, the focus of the current study is sources of stress and coping by sport parents, and therefore
research pertaining to those areas will be presented.
Organizational stress. Organizational stress has been defined by Shirom (1982) as “workrelated social psychological stress” (p. 21) and conceptualized as the interaction between an
employee and the work environment to which they are exposed. Much of the research on
organizational stress has been conducted in business and professional domains, including but not
limited to correctional officers (Finney, Stergiopoulos, Hensel, Bonato, & Dewa, 2013),
pharmacists (Jacobs, Hassell, Ashcroft, Johnson, & O’Connor, 2014), oncology nursing (Florio,
Donnelly, & Zevo, 1998), and teaching (Guglielmi & Tatrow, 1998). Examples of organizational
stressors include role conflict, co-worker conflict, salary, work overload, resources, and
organizational structure (Finney et al., 2013; Florio et al., 1998; Jacobs et al., 2014).
Woodman and Hardy (2001) defined organizational stress in sport as being “an interaction
between the individual and the sport organization within which the individual is operating” (p.
208), with Fletcher, Mellauai, and Hanton (2006), further breaking this down into five dimensions
based on the work of Cooper et al. (2001). Specifically, Hanton and Fletcher (2005) identified
example stressors which included (1) factors intrinsic to the sport e.g., training and competition
environment, loads, hours, travel arrangements, and nutrition; (2) roles in the sport organization,
e.g., role ambiguity (lack of information needed to perform role), role conflict, and role overload
(being both a captain and performer); (3) sport relationships and interpersonal demands, e.g.,
personality type, leadership style, and lack of support; (4) athletic career and performance

39

development issues, e.g., position insecurity, income and funding, and career advancement; and
(5) organizational structure and climate of the sport, e.g., coaching and/or management style,
inadequate communication channels, and no sense of belonging.
Competitive stress. Competitive stress is defined by Mellalieu, Hanton, and Fletcher (2006)
as “an ongoing transaction between an individual and the environmental demands associated
primarily and directly with competitive performance” (p.3; adapted from Fletcher et al., 2006).
Competitive stressors include preparation or lack thereof physically, mentally, and technically; the
risk of injury, including aggravating old injuries and playing while injured; pressure of performing
and the knowledge that selection is based on performance; competing against more talented and/or
intimidating opponents; self-presentation and appearance; event stressors like the beginning of a
game, competition, and closing out a game; and finally superstitions such as not being able to play
in “lucky” socks or shirt or playing in a particular venue (Hanton et al., 2005).
Sport parent stress outcome research. There have been a number of studies that examine
sport-specific parent stress. A series of studies by Harwood and Knight (2009a; 2009b) and
Harwood, Drew, and Knight (2010) have systematically examined stress in several different
contexts (e.g., soccer academy) within tennis and soccer in the United Kingdom. Specifically,
Harwood and Knight (2009a) surveyed 123 tennis parents whose children participated between
club and international level tennis to determine a list of stressors for tennis parents, based on the
stage of talent development of their children. Using an open-ended survey allowed expression of
novel and unique stressors by parents, and a quantitative measure of stressor prevalence. Analyses
resulted in seven core areas of parental stressors: the process of competition (e.g., post-match skills
in helping their child deal with a difficult loss – 70% of respondents); the behaviors and skills of
coaches (e.g., match attendance and support or lack thereof – 27% of respondents); financial

40

implications of involvement (e.g., coaching fees – 33% of respondents); the time commitment
required (e.g., restricted personal, parental, and family time – 31% of respondents); inequality of
resources to siblings (e.g., unequal time, money, and attention to tennis sibling – 28% of
respondents), tennis organization-related (e.g., perceived favoritism from local club and county
associations – 20% of respondents), and developmental stressors (e.g., educational conflicts and
issues – 43% of respondents).
Harwood and Knight (2009b) also conducted focus group interviews with 22 tennis
parents, including four parent-dyads, again examining the sources of stress for sport parents.
Questions for the interviews were developed using the stressors elicited from their previous study
(Harwood & Knight, 2009a). Additionally, the parents were recruited based on the stage of
development of their athlete(s) as being in one of the sampling, specializing, or investment stages
of athletic talent development. Stressors were grouped into three general dimensions:
organizational stressors, competitive stressors, and developmental stressors. These groupings
came from the previously mentioned literature on stressors in sport, but importantly the third group
(developmental stressors) relates to development outside of the sporting organization, for example,
educational development. Within organizational stressors, six higher order themes emerged from
the data, including time, finances, organizational bodies, tournaments, training and coaching, and
injury. Regardless of the developmental stage of their child, most or all parents cited time, training
and coaching, tournaments, and organizing body stressors. As athletes progressed to the
specialization and investment stages parents reported more stressors with regard to finances and
injury, although there is some sub-theme variation between stages. Competitive stressors made up
eight higher order themes: namely, watching matches, other tennis parents, child’s behaviors and
attitudes, child’s opponents, preparation for matches, child’s performance, outcome of the match,

41

and child’s psychological readiness. Harwood and Knight noted that competition stressors were
uniformly reported across all developmental stages; however, relatively more were reported by
sampling stage parents, and that in general, stressors decreased with advancing developmental
stage. The higher prevalence of sampling stage competition stressors was linked to the age of the
competitors, many experiencing competition for the first time and thus the novelty of the situation
increased feelings of stress. Finally, developmental stressor higher order themes were child’s
education, child’s future, making appropriate decisions regarding tennis, and impact on other
hobbies. Developmental stressors were much less reported by sampling stage parents, in part it
was speculated, due to the fact that commitment to the sport is lower and subsequently impacts
other areas of development (e.g., education) less frequently. In particular parents reported stress
regarding decisions on balancing education and tennis, and conflicts with schools regarding
participation leading to even greater stress.
Harwood, Drew, and Knight (2010) conducted focus group interviews with 41 parents (25
fathers and 16 mothers) of children enrolled in English elite soccer academies and deemed to be
in either the earlier (participants of either under 9 or under 12 teams) or later (the under 13 or under
15 teams) specialization stage of athlete talent development. Focus groups were created based on
whether parents’ children were in the earlier or later stages of specialization, partially in an effort
to examine the differences in parental stressors across what is otherwise a very wide age-range
based stage. From the data, four general parenting stressor dimensions were created, each with
sub-themes that were either specific to early or late specialization stage parents, or to all parents.
The first was academy processes and quality of communication, which revolved around how
academies were run (cited by early specialization parents), sensitivity regarding release (identified
by later specialization parents), and the clarity and consistency of communication from the

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academies and coaches to parents (cited by both groups of parents). Second were match-related
stressors which referred to the performance of their son and subsequent emotional reactions for
parents (later specialization parents), resisting the urge to sideline coach and frustration
surrounding player rotations (early specialization parents), and the approaches to development
used by coaches, other parents, and injuries (all parents). Third were sport family role conflict
stressors, including management of resources (e.g., finances, time) and other family obligations
(e.g., siblings, holiday). Family role conflict stressors were reported by both groups of parents.
Finally, stressors related to school support and education issues, which were reported by later
specialization parents only, revolved around how to help their son balance school and football, and
how to manage the conflicts and apparent lack of support from schools.
Harwood and colleagues (2009a; 2009b; 2010) suggested that while the sport parent
stressors may appear exclusive to the sport parent population, (due to unique descriptions of
stressors from parents and the distinct nature of the sport context), the stressors can be interpreted
within existing literature on competitive and organizational stress athletes report. Using both
inductive and deductive analyses, Harwood and colleagues were able to organize some sport parent
stressors under higher-order themes of competitive and organizational stressors, as guided by prior
stress research in sport. However, inductive analyses highlighted that some stressors did not fit
within organizational or competitive stressors categories and so a third dimension of
developmental stressors was created. Developmental stressors include such things as parents trying
to find a balance between athletic and academic development of their child, and are closely aligned
with the organizational stress dimension of athletic career and development issues, but have the
additional focus on development of the child outside of the sporting organization, e.g., school.

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Competitive stressors are those that relate directly to competition and competition
performance (Mellalieu et al., 2006, adapted from Fletcher et al. 2006). Across all three studies,
parents reported stress resulting from having to watch their child practice and compete, and help
them deal emotionally with performances, especially where they were unable to directly intervene
(Harwood, Drew, & Knight, 2010; Harwood & Knight, 2009a; 2009b). Indeed, it appears that
stressors were similar even if manifested differently, between tennis and football, although clear
sport-specific differences existed also. For example, having to anticipate and deal with their child’s
reactions to match outcomes, particularly losses, appeared in both tennis and soccer. However,
stress related to the use of squad rotation systems in football academies is unique to a team-based
sport. All of these stressors are from the higher-order category of competitive stressors and could
also be considered match-related stressors. There also was a progression across developmental
stages from sampling to investment toward an overall reduction in competitive stressors for
parents. That is, as parents had acquired more accurate performance expectations, and a better
understanding of how to handle stressful situations and interact with their children (Harwood &
Knight, 2009b) they experienced less stress. However, there were some indications that incidents
that potentially block child progress, such as poor line calls from other players (Harwood &
Knight, 2009b), injury, or loss of place in an academy based on performance (Harwood et al.,
2010) became greater stressors across development.
All five dimensions of organizational stressors (Fletcher et al., 2006; Hanton & Fletcher,
2005) appeared across the three studies. First, factors intrinsically related to the sport, included
finance, time, travel, training, and injury stressors. These stressors were particularly evident for
parents of youth athletes in the specialization stage as parents were required to spend a greater
amount of time transporting their children to a greater number of practices and competitions.

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Second, roles in the sport organization stressors were identified and included role ambiguity,
expectations, and managing role conflicts. More specifically, parents discussed the difficulties of
managing the dual roles of trying to be a helpful sport-parent, but manage other family tasks such
as giving attention to other siblings and helping those siblings pursue their interests. Additionally,
many parents question the respect they are given by sporting organizations, particularly the role
parents play in athlete development. Thirdly, sport relationships and interpersonal demands, such
as communicating with other parents, coaches, and teachers were stressors for parents. These
relationship stressors were particularly prevalent when it came to interacting with other parents or
their own child with regard to negative behaviors or match outcomes. Fourthly, parents discussed
the organizational structure and climate of the sport as stressors, particularly in the specialization
and investment stages, citing selection policies, autonomy in decision making, and match
schedules as stressors. Some of the most noted stress sources included transparency between
organizations and parents regarding athlete funding, poor quality of communication from the
organization and coaches, favoritism, and poor sport infrastructure.
Finally, developmental stressors are those concerning the overall development of a child
(Harwoord et al., 2010; Harwood & Knight 2009a; 2009b). Developmental stressors can originate
from a sporting organization and therefore be organizational stressors, but these stressors are
primarily focused on development of athletic performance within a specific sport organization.
Developmental stressors from outside a sporting organization are more generally concerned with
holistic child development (e.g., sport vs. education balance), although this may include some sport
aspects external to an organization, such as picking an appropriate coach or organization in the
first instance. It is perhaps difficult to separate general developmental stressors from organization
developmental stressors, as the development of a young athlete will necessarily include both, and

45

they will influence each other. Organization developmental stressors included concerns with
security of position, issues regarding child retention at a club or academy, and funding (Harwoord
et al., 2010; Harwood & Knight 2009a; 2009b). General developmental stressors contained issues
regarding support from schools and teachers, or lack thereof, and the influence this would have on
overall academic outcomes. In particular, parents felt compelled to take either a more academic
route or more sport performance route, feeling that a compromise between the two was not a viable
option (Harwood & Knight, 2009b). Additionally, general developmental stressors parents
experienced included picking the correct coach or organization to enhance progress, and concerns
promoting one sport over other developmental activities (e.g., another sport or music; Harwoord
et al., 2010; Harwood & Knight 2009a; 2009b). Clearly then, developmental stressors are some of
the most stressful for parents because they present the ‘what if’ question, where parents are being
asked to choose between options with unknown or unclear consequences. Choosing one action
may inhibit development and potentially rule out the opportunity to go back and choose another
option, e.g., choosing to specialize in a sport and perhaps put less emphasis on academics, while
at the same time not knowing if their child will achieve sporting success and have missed out on
educational opportunities. These dilemmas potentially elicit the “threat” or “challenge” appraisals
suggested by Lazarus (1999) due to their potential influence on child outcomes. In practical
application, perhaps more so than with competitive and organizational stressors, parent education
can provide parents a greater evidence base from which they can make decisions on developmental
issues, potentially reducing stress.
These initial studies were important first steps in examining parent stressors in sport,
however, there were some limitations. The first is that none of the reviewed studies examined the
entire stress process including a stressor, appraisal, and subsequent coping attempts (Harwood,

46

Drew, & Knight, 2010; Harwood & Knight, 2009a; 2009b). This is a general limitation with stress
and coping research (Lazarus, 1999) due to the need for multiple time-point assessment of all
stages of the stress, appraisal, and coping process. There is a need for longitudinal research on
sport parent stress and coping to determine how appraisals of stressors and coping attempts change
over a period of time e.g., a competitive season. It may then be possible to assess which stressors
are perceived as being more positive (challenge) and which ones as more negative (threat; Lazarus,
1999). Fletcher and Sarkar (2013) recently reviewed resilience literature, and presented the
example of an athlete winning a competition which increases pressure to win in the future. The
event is positive and the stressor could be appraised as a threat or a challenge, but ultimately will
increase stress for some athletes. An example for sport parents might be a child being successful
and chosen to represent a travel team that requires increased time and financial support. Again, a
positive event occurs (being selected for a higher team), but the stressors of time and financial
commitment coming from this opportunity could be considered a threat or a challenge. A second
limitation is that in both of the Harwood and Knight (2009a; 2009b) studies, only four parentdyads or eight parents completed a survey or were interviewed together. While accepting and
understanding that families are composed in different ways, including one and two parent families,
blended families, or divorced parents, not including both parents to understand stress (and coping)
limits the interpretation of stressors within a family. To fully understand stress and subsequent
coping, it is important to understand how stressors are interpreted by each individual and also as a
parent-dyad, as this is likely to be key to understanding coping strategies within a family (Boss,
1992; Kazak, 1992). The criticism of only including one parent is common in the sport parent
literature in general and needs to be addressed in future studies (Gould & Cowburn, in press).
Thirdly, only two sports have been examined, and they only assess certain sport contexts. More

47

specifically, tennis and soccer have been reviewed, representing an individual sport known for its
high financial and travel requirements and a team sport in the academy context. Also, each of these
studies is conducted inside the United Kingdom which is known for club rather than school sport.
Therefore, outside of tennis and elite youth soccer (due to the sampling at soccer academies) more
research needs to be conducted to see if stressors are similar in other sports and at different skill
levels, i.e., below the elite level. This is particularly important as the majority of parents will have
children in the non-elite category. Additionally, are sport parent stressors the same for sports that
are school-based in the United States? While the previous studies cannot be criticized for
examining specific populations, it is important to remember that these studies are qualitative and
results may not be generalized to other populations, and therefore research into other sport contexts
is required.
Coping
Definition
Coping is defined by Lazarus and Folkman (1984, p.141) “as constantly changing cognitive
and behavioral efforts to manage specific external and/or internal demands that are appraised as
taxing or exceeding the resources of the person”. Coping then represents cognitive and behavioral
efforts to manage appraisals of external stressors and internal emotional responses to stressors, and
encompasses actions used to change or avoid a situation or one’s emotions (Hoar, Kowalski,
Gaudreau, & Crocker, 2006; Lazarus, 2001). A number of different types of coping and ways of
organizing the types of coping have been identified in the literature, here the more traditional
problem- and emotion-focused coping, and a more recent twelve families model of coping are
reviewed (Folkman & Moskowitz, 2004; Hoar et al., 2006; Skinner, Edge, Altman, & Sherwood,
2003).

48

Typologies of Coping
Twelve families’ hierarchy of coping. After extensively reviewing the coping assessment
literature Skinner and her colleagues (2003) derived a hierarchical framework of coping in an
attempt to help facilitate thinking about coping assessment and functioning. The 12 families
hierarchical model of coping include five levels: instances, strategies, families, functions, and
adaptive processes. Each of these levels is depicted as a column in Table. 1 that depicts the 12
families hierarchy of coping. Starting on the left of the model “coping instances” are real-time
responses individuals use to cope with stressful transactions (e.g., a swimming mom sitting in what
she considers to be her “lucky” seat at a meet).
At the next level, coping “strategies” are categorizations of coping instances into
conceptually clear, mutually exclusive, and exhaustive groupings. For example, a swimming dad,
worried about how his son will perform in a state-qualifying meet, talks to another parent about
his concerns and conducts some research about the state-qualifying meet to better understand the
competition and his son’s competitors. Both of the actions the swimming dad takes are coping
instances, however, they would be classified as different coping strategies, i.e., contact seeking
and reading respectively. Skinner and his colleagues identified over 400 specific coping instances
and strategies that are usually captured by self-report or observational methods.
Due to the large number of specific coping strategies that have been identified 12 more general
categories or “families” of coping were identified by Skinner et al. (2003). These families include:
problem-solving (adjust actions to be effective), information seeking (find additional
contingencies), helplessness (find limits of actions), escape (escape non-contingent environment),
self-reliance (protect available social resources), support seeking (use available social resources),
delegation (find limits of resources), isolation (withdraw from unsupportive context),

49

accommodation (flexibly adjust preferences to options), negotiation (find new options),
submission (give up preferences), and opposition (remove constraints). These families of coping
are considered mutually exclusive and exhaustive. Thus going back to our swimming dad, his
coping strategies of contact seeking and reading would fit into support seeking and information
seeking coping families respectively.
Table 1. The 12 families’ hierarchy of coping.
Coping Strategies
Strategizing
Instrumental Action
Reading
Observation
Confusion
Cognitive interference
Cognitive avoidance

Problem Solving
Information
Seeking
Helplessness
Escape

Coping Instances

Behavioral avoidance

Family of Coping

Family Function in
Adaptive Process

General
Adaptive
Process

Adjust actions to be
effective
Find
additional
Coordinate
contingencies
actions
and
Find limits of actions contingencies in
the environment
Escape
noncontingent
environment
Protect
available
social resources
Use available social
Coordinate
resources
reliance
and
Find
limits
of social resources
available
resources

Emotional regulation
Self-Reliance
Behavioral regulation
Contact seeking
Support Seeking
Comfort seeking
Maladaptive helpseeking
Delegation
Complaining
Social withdrawal
Withdraw
from
Isolation
unsupportive context
Concealment
Distraction
Flexibly
adjust
Accommodation
preferences
to
Cognitive
options
restructuring
Bargaining
Coordinate
Negotiation
Find new options
Persuasion
preferences and
available options
Rumination
Submission
Give up preferences
Intrusive thoughts
Other-blame
Opposition
Remove constraints
Aggression
Note. From “Searching for the structure of coping: A review and critique of category systems for
classifying ways of coping,” by E.A. Skinner, K. Edge, J. Altman, and H. Sherwood, 2003,
Psychological Bulletin, 129, p.245. Copyright 2003 American Psychological Association. Adapted
with permission.
50

The Skinner et al. (2003) model does not stop at the identification of families of coping
strategies. The higher order families of coping are organized based on their specific “adaptive
family functions” (e.g., problem solving strategies are used to adjust actions to be effective while
information seeking strategies are used to identify additional contingencies). Further inspection of
Table 1. shows that these range from the just mentioned adjusting actions to be effective and
finding additional contingencies functions, to giving up preferences and removing constraints.
Finally, the adaptive processes linked to family functions are further categorized into one
of three general “adaptive processes”. These processes include coordinating actions and
contingencies in the environment, coordinating reliance and social resources, and coordinating
preferences and available options. At this, the highest level of the hierarchy, these three adaptive
processes “intervene between stress and its psychological, social, and physiological outcomes”
(Skinner et al., 2003, p. 217). It is also thought that at this level coping serves evolutionary
functions regarding information of the surrounding environment and escaping from dangerous
transactions.
In summary, the 12 families’ hierarchical model of coping provides an empirically based
taxonomy for identifying more general categories of coping strategies. It also has the advantage of
linking specific families of coping strategies to specific functions that they serve. However, the
model is very complicated, difficult to understand, and massive in scope, making a complete test
of it highly difficult. Specific predications also are not forwarded. Finally, few studies have been
conducted to test its predictions. At the same time, the general family taxonomy and knowledge
of ways coping functions could help inform this dissertation.
Problem and emotion focused coping. A more simplistic and more widely recognized
conceptualization of coping are problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping (Folkman

51

& Moskowitz, 2004; Lazarus, 1999; 2001; Skinner et al., 2003). Problem-focused coping is where
a person attempts to directly manage situational demands such that the stressor that is causing
distress is removed or altered (e.g., a college student talking directly to a professor about how to
improve his/her grade in a class) (Hoar et al., 2006; Lazarus, 1999). Emotion-focused coping is an
attempt to regulate emotions elicited from a stressor (e.g., seeking emotional support or deep
breathing to lower one’s stress level) (Folkman & Moskowitz, 2004; Lazarus, 1999; 2001).
Emotion focused coping is achieved via reappraisal of the transaction between situation and
personal resources in an attempt to reduce the severity of the stressor (Lazarus, 1999).
Despite the prevalence of the problem- and emotion-focused coping in the field of sport
psychology (Hardy, Jones, & Gould, 1996), there is considerable debate about their suitability to
explain coping. Skinner et al. (2003) argued that when emotion- and problem-focused coping are
applied at a strategy level, neither meet the requirements of mutual exclusivity, exhaustiveness, or
conceptual clarity. Additionally, when applied at the families’ level of the hierarchy, it is unclear
what strategies are used for each. To give a more detailed example, Billings and Moos (1981)
proposed the inclusion of ‘avoidance strategies’ within the problem- and emotion-focused coping
conceptualization as a type of emotion-focused coping, a view supported by Lazarus (1999).
However, others classify avoidance coping (withdrawal of effort to ameliorate stressor or achieve
goals) as equal to emotion- and problem-focused coping in the hierarchy (Endler & Parker, 1994).
In summary, the problem- and emotion-focused conceptualization of coping is a more
simplistic way of examining coping. Due to the more simplistic nature it is much easier to test
empirically (see “coping effectiveness - goodness of fit hypothesis” below), and useful for
practitioners because it is easily explained to lay populations. However, as suggested previously,
there is the possibility the conceptualization is overly simplistic and ignores important details

52

regarding coping attempts, such as those described in the twelves families’ of coping hierarchy
(Skinner et al., 2003).
Measurement of Coping
Coping in sport has been measured using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies,
although quantitative methodologies make up the majority of coping studies (Hoar et al., 2006;
Crocker, Kowalski, & Graham, 1998). Many quantitative measures have been derived from the
Ways of Coping questionnaire (Folkman & Lazarus, 1985) and include the ways of coping
checklist for sport (Madden, Kirkby, & McDonald, 1989; Madden Summers, & Brown, 1990),
modified ways of coping checklist (Crocker, 1992), and the higher order ways of coping (Haney
& Long, 1995). Each of the measures derived from the ways of coping questionnaire has issues
with validity and reliability and has subsequently been suggested as not suitable use for sport (Hoar
et al., 2006). Additional quantitative measures include the modified COPE (MCOPE; Crocker &
Graham, 1995), the athletic coping skills inventory-28 (ACSI-28; Smith, Schutz, Smoll, &
Ptachek, 1995), coping function questionnaire (CFQ; Kowalski & Crocker, 2001), and the coping
inventory for competitive sport (CICS; Gaudraeu & Blondin, 2002). These subsequent measures
of coping have better validity and reliability, with the MCOPE one of the most popular coping
measures in sport, especially as it assesses at the strategies level (Hoar et al., 2006). However, each
of the above measures is best used for specific tasks: the ACSI-28 is best used for measurement of
psychological skills used in sport for coping or more trait-like coping skills, the CFQ is designed
for use with adolescents to measure coping function, and the CICS has a strong theoretical basis
and covers several stages of a competitive event (Hoar et al., 2006).
There also have been a few studies using qualitative methodologies, which examined
coping strategies used by Olympic wrestlers (Gould, Eklund, & Jackson, 1993) and elite figure

53

skaters (Gould, Finch, & Jackson, 1993). Qualitative studies in coping have several strengths,
including inductive creation of coping theory, examination of current coping theory in more detail
by connecting stressors and coping strategies (in a way that is not possible from questionnaires),
and an in-depth examination of the person and situation characteristics involved with coping, such
that it is possible to understand specific coping instances based on situational factors (Crocker et
al., 1998). Both qualitative studies found similar coping strategies, with Gould, Finch, and Jackson
(1993) identifying several coping strategies used by athletes, including: rational thinking and selftalk, positive focus and orientation, social support, time management and prioritization,
precompetitive mental preparation and anxiety management, training hard and smart, isolation and
deflection, ignoring, reactive behaviors, striving for positive working relationships with partner,
changing to healthy eating attitudes and behaviors, miscellaneous uncategorized coping, and a lack
of coping strategies. Meanwhile Gould, Eklund, and Jackson, (1993) found thought control
strategies (blocking distractions, perspective taking, positive thinking, coping thoughts, and
prayer), task focus strategies (narrow, more immediate focus, and concentrate on goals), emotional
control strategies (arousal control, visualization), and behavioral strategies (change/control
environment, and follow routines). Both of these studies, while finding slightly different results
(based on the questions asked and specificity of the situational characteristics), supported the
notion that coping is a dynamic process (Gould, Eklund, & Jackson, 1993; Gould, Finch, &
Jackson, 1993).
What has been learned about Coping?
Coping is a well-researched area in sport because of the potential to improve both the sport
experience and sport performance by reducing stressors and overall stress levels of individuals.
Along those lines, much of the research had focused on trying to identify consistent and

54

characteristic coping responses to stressors to allow for prediction of athlete behavior and the
design of intervention programs to assist athletes in their coping attempts (Hoar et al., 2006). A
brief review of coping styles, antecedents to coping, and coping outcomes will be presented in an
effort to summarize what has been learned about coping in sport.
Coping styles. Coping styles focus on the idea that individuals’ coping efforts are
consistent across time. In other words, coping is trait-like, rather than state-like. This means that
coping actions across time are stable and consistent across different stressful situations (Hoar et
al. 2006). The trait-like approach to coping is conceptually different to what has been presented
thus far, which suggests that coping is a dynamic process (Lazarus, 1999; Gould, Jackson, & Finch,
1993). There is a growing body of literature on the temporal stability and situational consistency
of coping, but results have been mixed, with moderate variability found in coping strategies
(Crocker & Isaak, 1997; Gaudreau, Lapierre, & Blondin, 2001; Hoar et al. 2006). Lazarus (1999)
advocates that consistency in coping behaviors is due to consistent appraisals on similar stressors,
resulting in preferred coping strategies. These preferred coping strategies are not described as traitlike due to the continuous transactional process that occurs during stress, appraisal, and coping,
resulting in a fluid choice of coping strategies (Lazarus, 1999). Hoar et al. (2006) suggested that
there are measurement and design limitations in the literature that prevent true measurement of
trait-like coping strategies, such as low sample size and thus statistical power. Therefore, the
evidence on whether coping styles exist is mixed, and additional research is required to examine
coping and determine how trait-like versus state-like it is.
Coping effectiveness – the goodness of fit hypothesis. According to the goodness of fit
hypothesis, effective coping requires a match between the context and the coping strategies used
(Folkman & Moskowitz, 2004). If a stressful situation, like choosing what club or coach to swim

55

for is deemed to be “controllable” (e.g., families can choose what club and/or coach they select for
their youth swimmer), then it requires greater usage of active, problem-focused forms of coping
(e.g., gaining information about each club or coach), whereas a “lack of control” over stressors
such as what other swimmers enter the child’s district championship meet would require a more
emotion-focused passive form of coping (e.g., using controlled breathing to ease the stress
associated with good swimmers entering a child’s race) because little can be done to change these
stress sources. The fit between appraisal of control and coping strategies is known as goodness of
fit (Folkman, 1984), and it is suggested that the better the goodness of fit, the more effective coping
outcomes will be (Folkman & Moskowitz). However, research assessing goodness of fit has
demonstrated mixed results. Christensen, Benotch, Wiebe, and Lawton (1995) found that matching
planful problem solving with controllable stressors and emotional self-control with less
controllable stressors related to better adherence in hemodialysis patients. Macrodimitris and
Endler (2001), however, only found support for matching low perceived control and emotionfocused coping and not between high-perceived control and instrumental coping strategies for
patients with type-2 diabetes. The goodness of fit hypothesis makes rational sense and has received
some support in the literature, but not unanimous support, indicating that more research is required
(Folkman & Moskowitz, 2004).
Antecedents to coping. Through the extensive research in coping a number of antecedents
have been identified as influencing coping strategies, although whether these antecedents influence
coping as mediators or moderators of the stress-coping relationship is heavily debated in the
literature (Hoar et al., 2006). The identified antecedents include social and environmental
antecedents, personality antecedents, and developmental antecedents (e.g., social roles, goal
orientations, and sport expertise respectively) (Hoar et al., 2006). Overall, Hoar et al. (2006)

56

summarized the research by suggesting that those with a task-orientation, internal and unstable
attributions, low competitive trait anxiety, high self-esteem, and high trait confidence and
dispositional optimism tend to use problem-focused coping strategies in sport. Whereas those who
have the converse are more likely to use emotion-focused or avoidance coping strategies. Hoar et
al. (2006) suggested caution in interpreting the results from coping antecedent studies due to
methodological issues and the fact that very few studies actually look at the transactional nature
of coping (Lazarus, 1999).
Coping outcomes. There are a number of outcomes of coping, and they can be grouped in
terms of functional outcomes, emotional outcomes, and psychosomatic outcomes (Hoar et al.,
2006). Functional outcomes include athletic performance, goal attainment and discrepancy
indices, and longevity and desire to continue in sport (Hoar et al. 2006). Research on functional
outcomes has suggested a weak relationship between coping and performance (Haney & Long,
1995), that task-oriented coping strategies (e.g., increased effort, planning) are positively related
to goal attainment (Gaudreau & Blondin, 2002; Gaudreau, Blondin, & Lapierre, 2002) and desire
to continue in sport (Kim & Duda, 2003), and the converse is true, such that withdrawal and
disengagement coping strategies (e.g., behavioral disengagement) were negatively related to goal
attainment and desire to continue. Emotional outcomes from coping efforts in sport are competitive
state anxiety and affective states (Hoar et al., 2006). Much of the limited research on competitive
state anxiety and coping has utilized cross-sectional designs, making it difficult to ascertain if
anxiety or coping attempts occurred first. Despite that, there is a link between disengagement
coping strategies and increased levels of somatic and cognitive state anxiety, with Ntoumanis and
Biddle (2000) finding task-oriented coping strategies were related to facilitative anxiety, whereas
disengagement coping strategies were related to debilitative anxiety. Similarly, task-oriented

57

coping strategies are associated with positive affect and disengagement strategies with negative
affect (Gaudreau & Blondin, 2002), although this relationship may be mediated by goal attainment
(Amiot, Gaudreau, & Blanchard, 2004). Finally, psychosomatic outcomes included athletic
injuries and burnout (Hoar et al., 2006). Udry (1997) found that coping strategies used by athletes
recovering from knee surgery explained between 15% (pre-surgery) and 44% (post-surgery) of
behavioral adherence to a rehabilitation program, and that instrumental coping was particularly
effective. Finally, Gould, Udry, Tuffey, and Loehr (1996) found that burned out athletes were less
likely to use instrumental coping strategies than non-burned out peers.
Overall conclusions. It is clear from the above research that there are adaptive and
maladaptive coping strategies available to athletes. In general, instrumental coping strategies are
adaptive and disengagement strategies are maladaptive. However, there are a number of different
strategies under instrumental coping, and these may include both problem- and emotion-focused
coping (e.g., planning, positive reappraisal, increased effort, and suppression of competing
activities) (Hoar et al., 2006). The variety of available coping strategies indicated that no one
coping strategy works for every individual, and athletes should have a range of adaptive coping
strategies available to them as different strategies will be needed for different stressors (Gould,
Finch, & Jackson, 1993; Hardy, Jones, & Gould, 1996). Additionally, just like coping antecedents,
outcomes of coping efforts have some theoretical limitations, including a lack of longitudinal
research to better understand the continuous nature of stress, appraisal, and coping (Hoar et al.,
2006). Finally, despite the breadth of research on sports parents and on coping in general, there
have been no studies to date that examine the coping strategies employed by sport parents, leaving
an important gap in the literature that warrants further investigation.

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The Rationale for the Current Study
This literature review has summarized key literature, both within and outside of the
sporting context, pertaining to stress and coping as it is likely to apply to sport parents,. It also has
reviewed key research on the importance of parents in the youth sport experience, particularly their
actions and behaviors, but also highlighted the limited amount of research on the consequence of
youth sport involvement for parents. Again, this lack of research is important considering the
reciprocal process of parenting, and the influence parents have on their children through their
actions and behaviors. Of the limited amount of research that has been conducted on sport parent
stressors, there are some limitations, and as yet there is no research on sport parent coping
strategies. The limitations and gaps in the sport parent literature are described below:


Lack of inclusion of both parents: Previous research on outcomes for parents involved in
youth sport has not included both parents of an athlete. In both of the Harwood and Knight
(2009a; 2009b) studies, only four parent-dyads or eight parents completed the survey or
were interviewed together. Not including both parents in studying stress (and coping)
potentially limits the interpretation of stressors within a family. To fully understand stress
and subsequent coping, it is important to understand how stressors are interpreted by each
individual and also as a parent-dyad, as this is likely to be key to understanding coping
strategies within a family (Boss, 1992; Kazak, 1992).



Limited number of sport contexts: Prior research on parental stress has been conducted in
only two sports (soccer and tennis), therefore a need exists to study additional sports
(Harwood, Drew, & Knight, 2010; Harwood & Knight, 2009a; 2009b). More specifically,
tennis and soccer have been reviewed, representing an individual sport known for its high
financial and travel requirements and a team sport in the academy context. Also, each of

59

these studies was conducted inside the United Kingdom that is known for club rather than
school sport. Therefore, outside of tennis and elite youth soccer (due to the sampling at
soccer academies) more research needs to be conducted to see if stressors are similar in
other sports and at different skill levels, i.e., below the elite level. This is particularly
important as the majority of parents will have children in the non-elite category.
Additionally, are sport parent stressors the same for sports that are school-based in the
United States?


A lack of studies examining parent coping strategies: While some studies have examined
parent stressors, none have directly addressed coping strategies parents use to deal with
stressors elicited through youth sport involvement. Knight and Holt (2013) investigated
strategies parents used to facilitate their child’s participation in tennis. While this study
was not an examination of coping strategies it did highlight strategies parents currently
used to enhance tennis involvement (e.g., spouses working together) and areas parents feel
they require greater support. Naturally, there is overlap between the stressors elicited from
the parent stress studies and areas parents feel like they need more support, as it is likely
parents perceive the transaction between themselves and the situation as being one which
presents threat, harm/loss, challenge, or perhaps benefit and thus result in increased stress
levels. Outside of Knight and Holt (2013), parent coping is almost completely unstudied
for the purposes of understanding the parent perspective and represents a large gap in the
research that needs addressing.
Based on the limitations and gaps in the current literature regarding stress and coping in

youth sport parents, there are three purposes to the current study:

60

1. To determine the benefits and the challenges (stressors) that parents with a child involved
in youth swimming experience. More specifically, this study will investigate the
competitive, organizational, developmental, and personal stressors experienced by youth
sport parents in the sport of swimming. Swimming has been chosen as it represents a sport
where a portion of each competitive year is spent in the school system, adding a new
context to the literature. Additionally, swimming is a sport that has associated costs and
requires travel for competition, which should generate stressors for parents.
2. To explore and examine the coping strategies identified and used by sport parents to deal
with the stressors experienced through their child’s youth sport involvement. There is a
specific need to understand the individual coping strategies as they are directly related to
specific stressors, and/or categories of stressors. The potential to link coping strategies to
stressors is particularly important for informing and educating other parents of youth
swimmers.
3. To conduct sport parent research examining stressors and coping strategies that includes
both parents to gain a better understanding of both individual and family functioning.
It is expected, based on current literature (Harwood et al., 2010; Harwood & Knight 2009a;
2009b; Skinner et al., 2003), that parents will experience developmental stressors (those regarding
the development of their child both as an athlete and non-athlete), organizational stressors (related
to the club in which their child swims), and competitive stressors (originating from experiences at
competitive meets). Additionally, to deal with those stressors parents will engage in a variety of
coping strategies (Folkman & Moskowitz, 2004; Skinner et al., 2003), including those that directly
address a stressor (problem-focused coping, e.g., co-ordination of efforts between parents) and
those that help reappraise interpretations of a stressor (emotion-focused coping, e.g., emotional

61

support from spouse). Finally, it is expected that parent-dyads will co-ordinate as a way of reducing
perceived stress and increase the efficiency of coping strategies used. This co-ordination of effort
is anticipated to always be positive with regard to stress management and coping.

62

CHAPTER III
METHOD
Participants
The sample for the study was comprised of 10 parent-dyads (10 mothers and 10 fathers)
who are parents to current youth swimmers in North America. The participants had a range of
sporting backgrounds, from college-level swimming experience through current recreational sport
involvement to no previous sporting involvement. They were well-educated, with all participants
having at least an undergraduate degree, and half of participants possessing a graduate degree.
Participant’s ages ranged from 32 to 51 years. Parent-dyad is the term used in this study to describe
both parents of a child. In addition to having out-of-school club opportunities, swimming
represents a sport where a portion of each competitive year is spent in the school system, adding a
new sporting context to the literature. Additionally, swimming is a sport that has associated costs
for pool time and equipment (e.g., swimsuits, pull-buoys, kick-boards), and it requires travel for
competition. These constraints and requirements were likely to generate stressors for parents. In
line with best practice, the number of dyads (10) was not predetermined but instead chosen as
saturation of themes had been reached, and there was little to no new theme generation at that time
(Strauss & Corbin, 1998). Additionally, dyads were chosen to allow for additional levels of
analysis, i.e., understanding individualized perspectives and also the shared experience of the pair
that reflects family processes (Boss, 1992; Kazak, 1992). Inclusion and exclusion criteria were
chosen in an effort to ensure that parent-dyads met the purposes of the study and to ensure
information-rich responses from which appropriate analyses could be conducted. The inclusion
criteria included: (a) a two parent intact family with at least one child participating in swimming;
(b) the child participating in swimming must be in the specialization or investment years of

63

swimming involvement as determined by year-round involvement in swimming. The child may
participate in other sports seasonally, but must be involved in swimming as their primary sport
year round; and (c) coach and/or other swimming parent judged high-involvement of at least one
of the parents in the youth swimming experience (explained in more detail below). Where parent,
child, and family are defined as follows: (1) Parent - a primary care-giver, that is, a responsible
adult who provides daily care for a child regardless of biological or legal guardianship; (2) Child
- a child or adolescent who is aged below 18 years of age and dependent upon one or more parents;
and (3) Family – a social group consisting of two parents and one or more children. Exclusion
criteria are, one-parent families and children in the sampling or maintenance years of involvement.
Procedure
Participants and Recruitment
Institutional review board approval was obtained from Michigan State University. A
sample of 10 parent-dyads was recruited via a purposive-snowball method (Babbie, 2011; Miles,
Huberman, & Saldaña, 2013). While saturation is a term most commonly associated with grounded
theory, the purpose is to conduct enough interviews that new themes no longer emerge through
further interviews (Creswell, 2007; Strauss & Corbin, 1998). Upon approval of the study, a
snowball sampling technique (Babbie, 2011) was used, starting with the coaches of swimming
clubs in North America, and then proceeding with recommendations from study participants.
Initial recruitment involved swimming clubs with year round training squads in the MidMichigan area, but soon expanded to clubs in other states within the United States using the
methods listed below. The lead researcher contacted appropriate clubs (as determined by Michigan
Swimming, a state governing body affiliate of USA Swimming), explained the purposes of the
study, and then recruited participants using coach referral, mental-skills coach referral, and swim

64

meet attendance, all of which are explained below. Initial participant recruitment was driven by
coaches because they typically have a good knowledge of the level and degree of parent
involvement, as demonstrated by Gould et al. (2008), providing an evidence based sampling
strategy (Miles, Huberman, & Saldaña, 2013). From initial referral, participant recruitment
followed the snowball sampling strategy described below.
1. Coach Referral: The head coach was contacted, and having had the purposes of the study
explained, was asked to identify the most involved parents of swimmers of the appropriate
stage of talent development are in their squads. Coaches were then asked to forward the
recruitment flyer (Appendix A) to those parents. The flyer contained information about the
study and contact information for the lead researcher if parents were interested in participation.
2. Mental-Skills Coach Referral: A mental-skills coach that works closely with swimming
athletes and clubs in a South Eastern State was contacted, and having had the purposes of the
study explained was asked to identify the most involved parents of swimmers of the
appropriate stage of talent development were in the club in which she worked. The mentalskills coach was then asked to forward the recruitment flyer (Appendix A) to those parents.
The flyer contained information about the study and contact information for the lead researcher
if parents were interested in participation.
3. Swim Meet Attendance: Permission was requested from the host swimming club to attend an
invitational swim meet (Appendix D.). The lead researcher had an information table at the
swim meet, where the recruitment flyer was used to draw attention and the lead researcher was
available to promote and explain the study and answer potential participant questions. During
these conversations the lead researcher asked questions pertaining to inclusion and exclusion
criteria, and interested parents added their name, number of children, child ages, and contact

65

information to a sign-up sheet. Importantly, it was explained to parents that although they
registered their interest to participate in the study at this stage, they may not be selected for the
study, and those selected would be contacted directly. From a list of parents, the lead researcher
determined that a small number had children that were most likely too young to be in the
specialization and investment years, and then contacted the remaining parents, of which three
parents still had interest in participating and where both parents were available to schedule
interviews.
4. Snowball sampling strategy: Coach and mental-skills coach referral, and meet attendance
recruitment elicited most of the parent-dyad participants for the study. These participants were
asked, as the final part of their interview, to consider other parents they knew that were highly
involved in the swimming activities of their children. Similar to coaches, parents knew of other
parents who were highly involved in their child’s sport, due to relationships built through being
a swimming parent. Participants were asked to forward the recruitment flyer (Appendix A) to
those parents identified and ask them to contact the lead researcher (contact details on flyer) if
they were interested in participating.
5. Consent of second parent: Naturally, the recruitment methods for the study meant that the
interest and consent of only one parent in a dyad was obtained first. Therefore interest and
consent were sought from the second parent before proceeding with data collection (Appendix
B).
6. Incentive: As an incentive to participate, all parent-dyads participating in the interview stage
of data collection were offered a $15 gift card for either Amazon.com or Meijer (a local
supermarket).

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Data Collection
Data were collected via semi-structured interviews, moving from broad to more specific
questions based on previous research on parent benefits (Wiersma & Fifer, 2008), stressors
experienced by youth sport parents (Knight, Drew, & Holt, 2010; Knight & Holt 2009a; 2009b),
as well as instances and strategies parents use to cope with the stressors faced (similar to Gould,
Finch, & Jackson, 1993; see Appendix C for interview guides). Interviews were conducted at a
mutually beneficial time and location for the parents (e.g., during a practice or at parents’ home),
and due to the remote location of some participants, some interviews were conducted via phone.
Parents were interviewed separately, but using the same interview guide (Appendix C). Parents
were interviewed separately for a number of reasons, including: allowing parents to be more open
and honest with opinions, especially those relating to the other parent and where disagreements
may have existed; getting both individual perspectives and comparison of stressors and coping
strategies between parents; and triangulation of stressors, coping strategies, and other facts
between parents (Creswell, 2007; Marshall & Rossman, 2011). Probes and questioning specifically
targeted areas where there may have been differences in opinion between parents to better
understand how stressors and coping were perceived individually, as well as between parents.
Demographic questionnaire. Before each interview, a short demographic questionnaire
was administered (see Appendix B) to ensure that participants met the inclusion and exclusion
criteria and ascertain additional detail regarding parent and child backgrounds that might influence
stressors and coping strategies. Demographic information included: parent name, age, sex,
education level, occupation, income level, and previous and/or current parent sport experience.
Additionally, the number of children in a family, the age and sex of the children, whether each
child was currently involved in swimming, to what level, and how long each may have participated

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in swimming, plus a list of other sports and extracurricular activities (e.g., debate club or band)
that each child may be involved in, with the length and level of involvement in those sports and
activities. The demographic questionnaire had three purposes: (1) it provided important
demographic information which was used to compare parent-dyads (e.g., family income and parent
occupations); (2) it obtained information relevant to parent-dyad stress and thus directed question
probes in interviews (e.g., number of children and the number of activities children participate in,
cost of swimming); and (3) it acted as a screening tool for inclusion criteria for the study (e.g.,
level of swimming involvement).
Interview process. Initially, the lead investigator asked questions about what it is like to
be a sport parent, before moving on to more specific questions of what challenges and benefits
there are to being a swimming parent. Specific examples of challenges and benefits as they related
specifically to parenting within swimming and to life outside of sport (e.g., partner relationships,
etc.) were probed to get as detailed information on each as possible. The interviewer focused more
on the challenges elicited to determine what is stressful about the challenges for parents.
As the participant discussed stressors, the lead researcher turned questioning toward coping
strategies for each of the stressors. Parents discussed how they manage stress, or cope with each
stressor elicited, with probes ensuring that all coping strategies had been mentioned. Additionally,
probes asked parents to describe how the strategies they use helped them to manage stress. The
goal of these probes was to understand not only what coping strategies were used, but the
mechanism by which coping strategies worked. As with stressors, as the participant was
interviewed he or she was asked to discuss how the other parent had similar or dissimilar ways of
coping with the stressor in question and if that helped or hindered the current participant in his or
her coping attempts. For example, Knight and Holt (2013) found parent-dyads distributed their

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combined resources to most effectively manage their child’s tennis career. So when a couple is
presented with two simultaneous stressors, Parent A may feel like he or she has the personal
resources to cope with the first of the stressors, but a lack of personal resources to deal with the
second. However, Parent B may have a different set of personal resources that allows him or her
to cope with the second stressor but not the first. Between the two parents they can distribute their
resources so that each parent deals with the stressor where they have the greatest strength. As a
practical example, one parent may enjoy booking hotels for travel and feel he/she has a strength
for finding good deals, while the second parent may dislike this task, find it stressful, and thus
focus on another potential stressor such as actually transporting the child (Knight & Holt, 2013).
Thus coping strategies for a stressor may be different for each parent, but allocation of resources
and social support from a partner represents a more general coping strategy as a parent-dyad.
The questioning regarding stressors and coping strategies was intended to be a somewhat
iterative process, such that coping strategies for a specific stressor were discussed immediately
after the stressor was discussed. The interview continued until all stressors and coping strategies
for the parent had been exhausted. Participants were then asked to give recommendations for other
sport parents to deal with the challenges involved with having a child in swimming. Specifically,
how would they recommend personally managing the stress, helping a partner to deal with the
stress, and maintaining a good family life and marriage while being a swimming parent?
During the final part of the interview, the list of emerging stressors (challenges) was
presented to participants, and they were asked to examine the list to see if it accurately represented
their stressors. Where participants felt the list was incomplete they were asked to add to the list,
and further probes regarding the additional items were asked. Parents were then asked to rate the
level of stress they experience with each of the stressors on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 was no

69

stress and 10 was maximum stress. Finally, to assist in the snowball sampling technique, parents
were asked if they knew of any other swimming parents with a child or children of a similar age
and swimming standard to their own son/daughter who are highly involved in their child’s sporting
activities and might be interested in participating. If the answer was yes, parents were given a
recruitment flyer (paper copy and/or electronic) and asked to pass it along to their contact(s).
Data Analysis
Interviews were audio-recorded and data from the interviews was transcribed verbatim,
resulting in 536 pages and 19446 lines of single spaced text. Transcripts were read and re-read by
the lead investigator to ensure immersion in the data. Hierarchical thematic content analysis was
then conducted using both inductive and deductive elements (Miles & Huberman, 1994). Previous
studies examining youth sport parent stressors (Harwood, Drew, & Knight, 2010; Harwood &
Knight 2009a; 2009b) and benefits (‘joys’; Wiersma & Fifer, 2008) have been conducted and
formed reference points for initial analysis of parent stressors in the current context by acting as
‘sensitizing concepts’ (Blumer, 1954) that gave the lead investigator examples of stressors and
benefits, and provide initial guidance for coding. Inductive analysis was used to create initial raw
data themes and hierarchical structure, and deductive analysis was restricted to placing higher
order themes into general dimensions. Inductive analysis only was used to determine parent coping
strategies. The use of both inductive and deductive analyses was similar to the process of abductive
analysis outlined by Patton (2014) and was deemed appropriate for stressors and benefits due to
consistency across previous studies on parent stressors. Abductive analysis also allows for
understanding the change of context for the current study i.e., sport, competition level, and
inclusion of both parents in the interview process from previous literature (Harwood, Drew, &
Knight, 2010; Harwood & Knight, 2009a; 2009b). Inductive analysis was particularly important

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for coping strategies as the investigator looked to understand the experiences of youth sport
parents, and was enhanced by the fact that no research to date had examined parent coping
strategies in youth sport in general and swimming in particular. Stressors and coping strategies
were initially analyzed separately to generate a hierarchical structure of each, before links between
specific stressors and coping strategies were assessed. There are both nomothetic and case study
analyses of the data, with nomothetic analysis following the steps below (Côté, Salmela, Baria, &
Russell, 1993; Miles & Huberman, 1994):
1. Node creation: Transcripts were read line by line with meaningful comments and quotes
from the raw data that relate to benefits, stressors, or coping strategies coded as individual
meaning units, or nodes. Additionally, interesting quotes that were meaningful to the
narrative of the individual that did not fall within benefits, stressors, or coping strategies
were coded as general experiences and used for case study construction. These general
experience codes were not analyzed using thematic analysis.
2. Creation of raw data themes: Nodes allow for aggregation of similar quotes and comments
of parents into raw data themes. In the case of parent benefits and stressors, some known
benefits and stressors from previous studies allowed for some deductive reasoning in
grouping nodes both in creating raw themes. However, the lead investigator made a
deliberate effort to look for alternative ways of interpreting and aggregating themes for
stressors. This involved cross-theme analysis to determine if themes had similar properties,
if they could be combined, or if indeed they would be best represented by different raw
data themes, known as constant comparison (Patton, 2014).
3. Higher order themes creation: Raw data themes were clustered together around common,
underlying higher-order categories.

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4. Hierarchical categorization: Further organization of higher order themes into a hierarchical
structure was conducted until it accurately represented the data, again using constant
comparison (Patton, 2014). General dimensions of benefits, stressors, and coping strategies
were developed via this method. The general dimensions for benefits and coping strategies
were developed deductively using prior research (Harwood, Drew, & Knight, 2010;
Harwood & Knight 2009a; 2009b; Wiersma & Fifer, 2008)
5. Selective coding: Similar to selective coding suggested by Straus and Corbin (1990),
propositions that link general stressors and coping strategies were sought, in an effort to
determine if specific coping strategies could be linked to specific stressors across
participants.
6. Simultaneous creation of case study profiles (see below) allowed for further immersion in
the raw data, understanding of parent-dyad perspectives, and thus more appropriate
creation of themes, hierarchical structure, and selective coding. Therefore, although listed
as a separate and final step, this is a continuous and simultaneous process of profile
creation, alteration, and comparison to help inform inductive analyses. This constant
comparison allowed for a more detailed understanding of both the nomothetic and case
study analyses by each type of analysis to inform the other.
Additional to the nomothetic analysis across all participants, case study profiles were
created. The case study profiles represent a detailed explanation of the stressors and associated
coping strategies of each parent-dyad. In particular the individual experiences of each parent in the
dyad, as well as similarities and differences between the parents have been reported. While
nomothetic aggregation of themes is important for a general understanding of swimming parents,
a case study profile allows for greater understanding of the unique narrative of stressors and coping

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strategies of each parent and parent-dyad. They also have the advantage of providing a holistic
account of the parents’ experiences, for which qualitative research is particularly well suited.
Assuming sport parent education is the end goal of sport parent research, the case study profiles
then give practitioners clear examples of different parent-dyads. Each case study profile also
contains a reflexive statement from the lead investigator in reference to the specific parent-dyad,
detailing any assumptions or biases such that the investigator was cognizant of and tried to bracket
out as he conducted the analysis (Creswell & Miller, 2000). Secondly, the profiles detail the
demographic information. Thirdly, the main content of the profile is an in-depth description of
each parent and the parent-dyad, their perceived benefits of being a youth sports parent, their
stressors and rating of those stressors, specific coping strategies used for each of the stressors, and
advice for other parents. Data for the case study come from the hierarchical themes from the
nomothetic analysis, plus observations and notes made by the primary investigator during
interviews. Data from case-studies also informed nomothetic analysis, as described above. Finally,
profiles were concluded with a summarizing statement for each parent-dyad case study.
Methodological Rigor
Several methods were used to enhance the methodological rigor of the study, including use
of trained investigators, a detailed audit trail, peer debriefing, and investigator reflexivity
statements.
Investigator training
The lead investigator has undergone graduate level training in qualitative research
methodologies and was responsible for conducting interviews, being the primary analyst and
interpreter of data, and for adherence to the following procedures for methodological rigor. The
first analysis assistant is an undergraduate research assistant that has completed coursework in

73

research methods and has experience as a high school swimmer. The first analysis assistant was
trained by the lead investigator in coding interview transcripts, and consequently was primarily
responsible for coding transcribed interviews. The hierarchical thematic analysis was then assessed
on two occasions by peer debriefers. The peer debriefers were instructed to review, critically probe,
and challenge decisions made by the lead investigator, including the emergent framework
(Creswell & Miller, 2000). On the first occasion, the emergent themes and hierarchical framework
were presented to a secondary analysis assistant who has training in graduate level qualitative
research, has previously conducted qualitative research, and importantly is a youth sport parent
(including school swimming). On the second occasion, the emergent themes and hierarchical
frameworks were presented to a group of seven graduate level researchers in the field of sport and
exercise psychology. Additionally, two of the graduate researchers had experience in conducting
research with sports parents. Four of these researchers has graduate level training in qualitative
methodologies and prior experience conducting qualitative research. Further details on how
researcher triangulation and peer debriefing was used to enhance methodological rigor can be
found below.
Researcher triangulation and peer debriefing
Triangulation is the process of establishing credibility by attempting to find convergence
among multiple sources of information, in this case, the analysis of the primary investigator and
analysis assistants (Creswell & Miller, 2000). The primary investigator and first analysis assistant
were responsible for the creation of nodes and themes from inductive analysis. Both independently
coded the transcripts of one participating parent-dyad before coming together to discuss meaning
units and reach consensus. Both then independently coded the transcripts for a second parent-dyad
before meeting to discuss meaning units and reach consensus. The primary investigator then

74

continued and coded the remaining participant transcripts, and then used inductive analyses to
enter raw meaning units into the hierarchical framework. The secondary analysis assistant and
graduate research group were used as peer debriefers to review, critically probe and challenge
decisions made by the lead investigator and the resulting emergent framework. The secondary
analysis assistant was asked to specifically focus on the quality of interpretation and analysis as it
relates to parenting (Creswell & Miller, 2000). It was the responsibility of the peer debriefers to
look for disconfirming evidence, a counter narrative to the one proposed by the lead investigator
(Miles & Huberman, 1994). Interpretations of the data and the subsequent construction of the
emergent framework required consensus between the primary investigator and peer debriefers, and
feedback from peer debriefers was used to alter and enhance the emergent framework.
Audit trail
An audit trail is a narrative account of all the research decisions and activities for the study
(Creswell & Miller, 2000). It is a process of journaling and memoing, such that not only is there a
chronological record of data collection and analysis actions, there are reflective statements
pertaining to the thought processes and decisions made during data collection, analysis, and writeup (Creswell & Miller, 2000). The use of an audit trail is particularly important in the research
process of a qualitative study as intended methods may need to change or may prove inadequate
for the purpose once data collection and analyses have begun. If the audit trail is kept appropriately,
it should allow external reviews of the study to judge the credibility of the procedures, inferences
made, and overall results (Creswell & Miller, 2000).
Member checking
Member checking is the process of allowing the research participants to become part of the
validation of research results, by allowing them to view either the data or the interpretations or

75

both, and provide feedback (Creswell & Miller, 2000). As part of the interview process, parentdyads were given the opportunity to provide “in interview” feedback on emerging results regarding
stressors and to comment and/or add to those stressors. The lead investigator asked parent
participants to review a list of emergent stressors based on notes taken by the lead researcher. At
this point parents could add, remove, or modify any stressor listed. Parents were then asked to rate
stressors elicited during the interview on a scale from 1 to 10, where one is low stress, in order to
better understand the level of stress felt with each stressor. This type of information is critical, as
some stressors were regularly reported by parents, but were actually considered to be low in stress
for most parents. Thus, allowing participants to provide feedback in this way enhanced the
understanding of collected data.
Reflexivity statements
The primary investigator completed regular reflexivity statements as part of the audit trail
to ensure ongoing reflection upon assumptions and biases throughout the data collection and
analysis procedure. Additionally, a final reflexive statement for each parent-dyad was written prior
to construction of case study profiles so as to highlight potential biases and assumptions of the
participants, and the statement is included in the case study profile. The purpose of the reflexive
statements was to create awareness of assumptions and biases, especially social, cultural, and
historical biases, and how these might shape inquiry, such that they can be suspended during
analysis and write-up (Creswell & Miller, 2000). Example of bracketing. The initial reflexivity
statement for this study can be found below.

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Lead Researcher Reflexivity Statements
Epistemological Beliefs and Approach to Research
The investigator believes both in the importance of individual experiences, but also in the
occurrence of patterns in groups of people. I liken this to theories of dynamic systems (Thelen &
Smith, 1994). There are sometimes almost infinite degrees of freedom for a human being regarding
behavior, but behaviors trend toward certain states of being due to ‘rate limiters’ or systems (e.g.,
life experience or emotion) that push people to behave in a certain way. These behaviors are
described by control parameters, the key identifiers for behaviors, such as language used. In other
words, there are certain experiences, family compositions, etc. that will mean that typical types of
behavior are displayed by individuals. This is what dynamic systems theories call the view from
above – ways of describing all human behavior in simple terms. However, it is also important that
we understand the experiences of individuals and how they construct their reality are just as
important, because describing people by control parameters or typical behaviors is very limiting
to the human experience. In dynamic systems, this is the view from below, the individual
differences. What I believe to be important then, is, (1) an understanding of what the rate limiters
and control parameters of human behavior regarding certain phenomena; and (2) an understanding
of what is unique about individual cases. This orientation guides my research in general and this
study in particular
Understanding how parents construct their own reality and using this as a way of
understanding the youth sport experience matches well with my overall philosophy. In the current
study one-on-one interviews have been deemed acceptable as a way to ascertain information and
I have tried to uncover both patterns across parents and to describe the unique experiences of each
parent.

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Given the interview method selected, it is also important to reflect on whether or not
interviews can actually achieve the purposes of the study. First, whether the stress-coping
relationship is always a conscious process needs to be questioned – how self-aware are parents? If
the stress-coping is conscious parents should be able to comment in depth about their stressors and
coping strategies. However, if it is not then parents may struggle to elucidate exactly what stressors
they experience and how they cope with those stressors. I believe the answer is actually both. Some
stressors and coping strategies will be of a sufficient level that they will be able to describe them
in detail, and some will not, they will be things that they ‘just do’ without thinking about them.
Additionally, some parents will be more self-aware and able to discuss their thoughts in detail,
while others will naturally be less self-aware. Importantly, the overall purpose of this research, in
the long term, is to help create educational materials for clubs, coaches, and parents regarding
working with parents and reducing their stress. It is unlikely that any stressors experienced or
coping strategies used that parents cannot explain will be sufficiently simple enough to include as
part of education delivered by lay populations.
Regarding the Current Study
I had a career in swimming as an athlete from a very young age until, right through high
school before I became a waterpolo player at University. My entire family became involved in
swimming because of my participation in the sport. My younger brothers and I were all very
successful; I competed in district, regional, and national level competition, as did elder of my two
brothers. My youngest brother was even more successful, becoming an age-group national
champion, being selected for the British Swimming offshore training group, and competing in two
Olympic trials. Each of us has subsequently used our time in swimming to pursue careers related
to sport, such as studying sport and exercise science and teaching physical education. I therefore

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hold the sport of swimming in high regard and consequently approve of a committed pursuit of the
sport to a high level. I will have to be aware of this, especially when interviewing and analysing
transcripts from parents who may have a contradictory view
As the eldest child I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to watch my parents
deliberate about what was best for the family in general and my brother in particular (with regard
to swimming). Which club should the family be at and if that matches with the club the youngest
brother needed to be at, what coach would be best, how and why we were or were not improving,
trying to find metrics that demonstrated improvement over maturational gains, etc. Naturally I care
very much for my own parents and believe that although they may not have always made perfect
choices, they genuinely had everyone’s best interests at heart. In fact, it is a desire to put my own
parents experiences into the perspective of other parents that led me to want to study swimming
parents, a quest to answer a typical question of children – are my parents normal?
Therefore, due to my personal experiences, and those I have gleaned from reading relevant
research, I have several preconceived ideas regarding swimming parents. The first is that parents
will be highly invested in their child’s swimming involvement, perhaps not in terms of winning,
but in terms of athletic and life-skill development of their children. The second is that all parents
are trying their best at all times and that they are inherently good people. The third is that parents
are bought into swimming as a whole, and therefore have taken time to understand the sport such
that they can support the needs of their children. The fourth is that, all parent will want, and enjoy,
working with their partner in providing the youth sport experience, thus making the study of parent
dyads relevant and important. Finally, all parents want the best for their children, but in sport
(swimming specifically) it is (1) not always possible to determine what is the best course of action;
(2) what they believe is best might not be possible or accessible to them; and (3) what they believe

79

to be best actually might not be correct. Remembering there are no control groups in real life,
parents are faced with the guilt and stress of perhaps not doing the “best” for their children because
of an inability to compare outcomes with unknown alternative routes. Again, I must be mindful of
these beliefs, especially when interviewing and analyzing transcripts of parents who perhaps run
contrary to this belief system, as it may present me with opportunities for additional insight into
the parent experience.
One aspect that also must be considered is that I am not a parent myself. This has potential
to be positive or negative when it comes to the current study, particularly in data collection and
analysis. On the one hand not being a parent means I do not have as many preconceived notions
about what being a parent, or sport parent, are. I am more likely to ask questions about topics that
a parent might consider to be tacit knowledge and thus not in need of asking. However, on the
other hand, this lack of tacit knowledge may inhibit my ability to accurately understand parent
experiences or assume I understand when I do not. Therefore it will be crucial to ask parents to
explain their experiences and truly capture their lived experience, and to use peer reviewers to
review subsequent analysis to ensure I am capturing the participants’ experiences accurately.

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CHAPTER IV
RESULTS
Analysis of the interviews led to creation of four areas of results: benefits, parent stressors,
parent coping strategies, and general experiences. Benefits, parent stressors, and parent coping
strategies (see Tables 2, 3, and 4) will be presented and discussed in further detail in this results
section. General experiences was used as a code for important information that might be pertinent
to case study analyses (e.g., a narrative from the father of family one regarding a pre-meet ritual
in which he and his daughter participate) and as such will not be presented in the results section
outside of details that exist in the case-studies. The results section is further subdivided into
nomothetic analyses across all parents and case study analyses that examine each of the parentdyad narratives in more detail. In the nomothetic analyses, general dimensions, higher order, and
lower-order themes will be presented. Due to the large number of themes only those where more
than half of participants (≥ 10), or where the author determines themes are notable / novel, will be
discussed in detail with sub-themes and raw-data quotes used to illustrate meaning. Family and
parent sex also will be noted e.g., family 1 male (F1M) or family 1 female (F1F). The case study
analyses section will present important details from several illustrative parent-dyad case studies.
It will also highlight any particularly interesting themes not included in the nomothetic analysis.
Participants
The participants for this study were 10 parent dyads, (10 males, 10 females) aged between
32 and 51 years of age, with a mean age of 44.25 years. This was an overwhelming well educated
group with 11 of the parents having completed a graduate level degree and the remaining nine all
having a college undergraduate degree, with occupations including stay at home parents,
professional positions (e.g., teachers, human resources managers), and one business owner. The

81

estimated cost of swimming ranged between $1000 and $9000, with a mean cost of ~$4150. Of
the participants, 16 had previously played competitive sport with three of the parents having been
competitive swimmers in either high school or college. Just under half of the parents (9) were still
participating regularly in sport at the time of the study, all at the recreational or club levels. Eight
of the 10 families had two children, with the remaining two families having three children. A
summary of this information, along with a unique family narrative can be found in Table 2.
Table 2. Participant family demographics
Family
Number
1

2

3

4

5

7

8

Family
Members
Mother
Father
Daughter
Son
Mother
Father
Son
Daughter
Mother
Father
Daughter
Son
Mother
Father
Daughter
Daughter
Mother
Father
Daughter
Daughter
Mother
Father
Daughter
Son
Daughter
Mother
Father
Daughter
Daughter

Age
48
48
14
7
47
49
18
12
32
34
14
8
48
48
20
17
51
48
16
16
44
44
14
12
12
43
46
13
11

Primary Sport Involvement
Unique Narrative
(P = Previous)
Running
Mother is a stay at home
Golf
parent and father works
Swimming
out of the home
Tumbling
Unexpected low
Marathoning
performances
from senior
Hockey (P)
year son and sibling
Swimming
balance stressors between
Swimming
son and younger daughter
None
Soccer
Younger parents. Stay at
home father.
Swimming
Soccer
Field Hockey (P)
Family coming toward the
Swimming (P)
end of its swimming
Swimming (P)
involvement
Swimming
Running
Twin daughters have both
Football (P)
experienced recent
Swimming
injuries
Swimming
None
The mother is less
Softball
invested in sport as the
Swimming
only activity worth
Swimming
pursuing
None
None
Father struggled to
Tennis (P)
identify his role within the
Swimming
swimming environment
Soccer
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Table 2 (cont’d)
Family
Number

9

10

11

Family
Members

Age

Mother
Father
Daughter
Son
Mother
Father
Son
Daughter
Daughter
Mother
Father
Daughter
Son

43
43
13
11
45
45
18
15
13
39
39
12
8

Primary Sport
Involvement
(P = Previous)
None
Softball
Swimming
Soccer
Skiing (P)
Swimming (P)
Swimming
Swimming
Diving
Triathlon
Running
Swimming
Swimming

Unique Narrative
Family is close to the
beginning of their
swimming
involvement
Father is a parentcoach in swimming

The mother is
currently training for
an Ironman triathlon

Nomothetic Analyses
Nomothetic, by definition, is supposed to represent themes that generalize across
participants in a sample, in this case across the parent-dyads of youth swimmers participating in
the current study. Constant-case comparison means that while individual stressors and coping
stressors can be disaggregated as individual constructs, the experience of a stressor and subsequent
coping strategy cannot, and they are highly individualized. As such, a number of highly
idiosyncratic themes emerged, which will be represented in frequency tables in nomothetic
analyses, and some of these idiosyncratic themes will be addressed in more detail in case study
profiles. However, the threshold for the minimum number of parents (or raw data references) a
theme needs for it to be presented is not well defined in the literature (Braun & Clarke, 2006).
Additionally, the lead investigator feels that items represented by a single parent may still be
important qualitative experiences. Therefore in the following descriptions of benefit, stressor, and
coping strategy themes (and associated tables 3, 4, and 5), items with few to one citation have been
included because, as Patton (2014) suggests, singular anecdotes viewed in the context within which
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they are given may serve as important references for future hypotheses and inquiry. That is not to
say these nodes are treated with the same importance as others, but serve as a basis for discussion.
As an example, one parent also was a swimming coach and thus had a number of potentially
important themes that were not discussed by other non-coaching parents.
Benefits
Parents discussed a number of positive outcomes from having their child involved in
swimming, and these were coded as benefits. Analysis of benefits identified four general
dimensions: parent benefits, child benefits, benefits associated with swimming, and family benefits
(see Table. 3). The four general dimensions contain ten higher-order themes, 27 subthemes, and
272 raw data citations from all 20 participants.
General dimension one: child benefits. Child benefits represent the positive outcomes
parents perceive directly for child or children because they are involved in swimming. Child
benefits can be broken into three higher order themes: child well-being, child holistic development,
and affiliations.
Table 3. Parent Perceived Benefits of Involvement in Swimming
General
Dimensions

Higher Order
Themes
Child Well-Being
(19-56)

Child Benefits
(19-159)

Child Holistic
Development
(18-80)
Affiliations
(11-23)

Parent Benefits
(19-73)

Parent Experiences
(17-35)

Lower Order Themes
Child Success (13-24)
Child Health, Safety, and Fitness (11-20)
Child Happiness (8-12)
Child Life-Skill Development (17-56)
General Child Development (12-24)
Child friendships (10-15)
Positive Relationships with other Adults (3-3)
Team Involvement (3-5)
Rewarding and Enjoyable Experience (9-17)
Being a Spectator (6-9)
Travel opportunities(5-6)
Pride in child (2-2)
‘Big’ Meet Attendance (1-1)
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Table 3. (cont’d)
General
Dimensions
Parent Benefits
Cont’d
(19-73)

Higher Order
Themes
Affiliations
(15-29)
Active Parent Roles
(5-9)

Swimming Benefits
(10-14)

Environment
(10-14)

Family Benefits
(7-26)

Family Function
(7-26)

Lower Order Themes
Developing friendships (13-26)
Involvement and Volunteering (3-3)
Parent Involvement in child development (2-4)
Learning about the sport (2-3)
Coach sport children are involved in (1-2)
Supportive and Competitive Environment (6-6)
Sport for life (3-4)
Good Coaches (2-4)
Father Involvement in Family Activities (5-15)
Family Relationships (2-3)
Provides Family Conversation (1-2)
Family Structure (2-5)
Family Identity (1-1)

Child well-being. The higher order theme of child well-being reflects parents’ beliefs that
involvement in swimming results in well-being for their child, both physically and
psychologically, and is represented by three sub-themes: child success, child health, safety, and
fitness, and child happiness. Child success was the most often reported benefit within child wellbeing and represents success not just as winning or outcome, but also mastery of swimming and
progressing as an athlete. For example, the father from Family 7 said:
“… the first time they did a 500, which of course nowadays 500 would be nothing to her.
But I imagine she was probably 9 and towards the end of the season our coach put her in
the 500 which she was scared to death. But you know she, she did that, and felt really proud
of herself and felt really accomplished by that” (F7M).
Parents felt that swimming had been a good sport for their children in terms of helping
them learn about health, fitness, and safety. Safety was one of the main reasons why parents
enrolled their child in swimming lessons and/or swim teams in the first place, so they would be
capable of looking after themselves should they get into difficulty in water. Additional to that

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original motivator, swimming was cited as providing an excellent setting for their children to both
learn about and practice health and fitness behaviors. Many parents also appreciated that
swimming is a life-skill, something that would keep their children safe across their lifetime and
would serve as a way to remain fit and healthy beyond school or college, one parent stated “… this
is a life skill, our kids will be good enough to swim … and I told [son] when he was very little,
you can stop swimming when I know you can get me to shore” (F2M). Although less than half of
the total number of parents, some recognized that swimming made their child happy, and that was
an important factor for parents. As will become apparent when examining parent stressors and
coping strategies, child happiness is a key component in parent stress levels, thus the child having
fun and getting enjoyment from swimming is important to parents as illustrated by the following
quote, “… her confidence level is just great to be around, you know, it kind of exudes her happiness
and makes her happy” (F4F).
Child holistic development. The higher-order theme of child development contains the
subthemes of child life-skill development and general child development. A large proportion of
parents interviewed discussed how swimming has been an excellent vehicle for their children to
learn life-skills. In particular, parents mentioned skills such as time management, emotional
regulation, discipline, goal-setting, dedication, and motivation, as demonstrated here by the father
of family five “… but y’know discipline, time management, commitment, y’know focus and
determination, y’know competitive edge”. General child development contains other
developmental attributes parents have attributed to swimming that are not life skills, including
development of identity, coaching skills, self-esteem, and positive body image. One father stated,
“I do think it’s helped her confidence, but she has kind of an identity like “I’m a swimmer” and
that was very helpful in middle school” (F7F). Some other parents chose swimming because its

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self-comparative nature meant that their children felt more comfortable participating, or that their
children would engage in less selfish behaviors in competition
“In swimming because each kid is just swimming for them [sic] self…and soccer if you
don’t get to score a goal someone else gets to score the goal, you have to try and hog the
ball otherwise, in swimming if someone else wins their event it doesn’t detract at all from
how you did in your event…” (F2F).
Affiliations. Finally, the higher-order theme of Affiliations is made up of three subthemes,
the first of which is child friendships. These parents felt that swimming provided children with
ready access to other children of similar ages, motivations, and what was considered a generally
positive developmental environment. As the mother of Family 8 suggested, “It’s a cool peer group.
Right? So it’s a nice group of kids she’s with who are similarly minded outside of just a regular
school group” (F8F). In some instances parents deliberately enrolled their child in sports for this
reason, and swimming was the sport they chose.
“I hear about some other sports where the kids might be a little rougher, they’re not as
focused on academics in those sports … with the swimming crowd everyone seems to be
very good students, good families, good values and it’s a really good peer group, made a
lot of friends, and keeps you in really good shape” (F2F).
The second category, mentioned by three parents, was positive relationships with adults.
Parents talked about how they felt it important that their children had the opportunity to form
relationships with other adults, in each case the coach was mentioned in particular, e.g., “…the
relationship with the coach I think it’s positive as well, for her to have another adult in her life who
knows her well and has high expectations for her and with whom she can process things” (F8F).

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Considering the number of times coaches were mentioned as a stressor for parents (see the stressors
section), it is important that they are also perceived as serving an important role for athletes.
Finally, there is team involvement, and much like child friendships, this theme represents
parents’ perception that being involved in a team environment is good for their child. One father
stated, “… her times are phenomenal, for high school, so obviously people just attracted to her, so
now she'll be a captain for that team, so it boosted her confidence a lot more with [high school]”
(F3M). Also suggesting that involvement in a team was perceived as having benefits beyond the
sport of swimming for some parents.
General dimension two: parent benefits. Parent benefits were broken down in to three
higher order themes: parent experiences, affiliations, and active parent roles. Parent benefits are
the positive aspects of swimming that directly affect the parents themselves.
Parent experiences. Parent experiences are opportunities parents have to experience things
because their child is involved in swimming that they might not otherwise had the opportunity to
enjoy. Overall, many parents described swimming as a rewarding and enjoyable experience,
mainly because of the benefits of involvement. Parents discussed perceived benefits including
being a spectator, travel opportunities, pride in their child, and ‘big meet’ attendance. Parents
suggested that they enjoyed opportunity to go and watch their child compete, felt pride in their
child’s achievements, and enjoyed travelling to new places. One father summarized, “… as the
parent, it's enjoyable and I enjoy going to the swim meets. …y'know I enjoy going to different
pools, I enjoy the travelling, things like that” (F10M).
Affiliations. Affiliations represented groups to which parents belonged because their child
is in swimming. The first such theme was parent friendships. Many parents suggested one of the
best outcomes from having their child in sport was developing friendships with other parents that

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understand their situation and have similar goals for their children. This is particularly important
because parents often have a restricted amount of time for themselves, each other, their families,
and socializing (see the stressors section of results). However, swimming also was felt to provide
a ready set of people with whom they can make friendships and enjoy spending time. This is
particularly important when they have to spend long days and weekends at competitions, as
demonstrated here by the mother from Family 10.
“… I get to have adult interaction with people who have children that are doing the same
thing. … when you watch a swim meet you watch her a minute and a half and then you
have a big long break in between events sometimes and it's good to have an adult sitting
with you that you can have a conversation with” (F10F).
Parents also talked about being able to volunteer with the swimming clubs. This allowed
parents not only to spend time with their child as they develop, but also to develop their own
networks as the parents of youth swimmers. One mother shared, “I think it allowed us an
opportunity to, to be involved and be part of her activity, through volunteerism” (F5M).
Active parent roles. Active parent roles was a much less frequently cited higher order
theme and refers to swimming providing ways for parents to become involved in the sporting
experience of their child. Lower order themes included parent involvement in child development,
learning about the sport, and coaching the sport their child is involved in. While less frequently
reported, this higher order theme still represents considerable importance to some parents and has
the potential to be important for a good number of parents beyond the study. One parent
highlighted that in most achievement contexts such as school, parents do not get observe their child
develop and learn; they only see the outcome. But in swimming there is the opportunity to see the
whole development process and play a part in it. One father stated,

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“All this stuff, you get a chance to see the development and growth in a way that I don’t
think you always get to see at school, and to some extent you don’t even get to see within
the life of your household because so much of it’s, is normalized; it just seems kind of like
unconscious. So it’s just like, I feel like it’s just like a big window into her development
that I don’t think I necessarily get in other parts of, of her life” (F8M).
General dimension three: benefits of swimming. The third general dimension was
benefits of swimming, and this represented the benefits parents perceived that came directly from
the sport of swimming, that perhaps would not come from other sports or development contexts.
This general dimension was referenced less than the previous two dimensions, with only half of
the parents discussing the subthemes. However, despite the lower number of mentions, there were
some qualitatively important subthemes discussed, including: the supportive and competitive
environment, the fact that swimming is a lifetime sport, and good coaches and clubs.
Swimming environment. This general dimension represents the idea that swimming as a
sport comes with some benefits that parents enjoy, some of which are highly specific to swimming.
For example, swimming provides a supportive and competitive environment that parents enjoy
themselves and perceive as beneficial to their children. The mother of Family 1 spoke about how
much she enjoyed the competitive environment of swimming, which benefitted her:
“I think just the sport, because I’m athletic and I just enjoy watching, I’m very competitive,
with myself so I love the competition and I’ve always enjoyed swimming, you know, I
even watch it in like the Olympics or on TV, I like, it’s kind of like track, you know, that
kind of thing, it’s a time thing and I’m a very competitive person time wise, so I enjoy that
part of that” (F1F).

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While the mother of Family 2 suggested that swimming as a sport appears to have good
values and allow greater focus on academics than other sports, providing a supportive environment
that benefitted her child:
“I hear about some other sports where the kids might be a little rougher, they’re not as
focused on academics in those sports. It’s all very athletic and more big and tough and
rough, and those kids sometimes get in trouble and with the swimming crowd everyone
seems to be very, you know good, good students, good families, good values and it’s a
really good peer group, made a lot of friends, and you know keeps you in really good
shape” (F2F).
Perhaps the clearest articulation of swimming specific benefits comes from the subtheme
of sport for life, which is the idea that parents were teaching their children a life-skill and sport
that would extend beyond the traditional high school / college boundaries for participation such
that their children could continue to swim throughout their lives
“… like I think about with [Second Daughter] with soccer, you know, injuries, or even sort
of a, a ceiling - is there a point at which she can’t compete or can’t compete at the level she
wants to? And that might be hard to help her transition into something else. But I don’t,
swimming just feels like something you can do forever” (F8F).
Finally, two parents discussed that swimming provided their child with good coaches who
were supportive of their children and caused the parents little stress. Parents felt that coaches
conducted themselves appropriately, demonstrating proper communication skills, and managing
high numbers of athletes well. Although one parent described that his perspective was not always
the same as that of his daughters, “my daughter didn’t think her high school [coach] liked her, but
he had some very good things to say about her at the end of the year banquet, I’m like oh he doesn’t

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like you huh?” (F1M). This is potentially important because the father of Family 1 is able to
separate child perspectives and coaching practices / behaviors, which did not appear to be common
for all parents (see coach stressors).
General dimension four: family benefits. The fourth and final general dimension is
family benefits. These are the positive outcomes parents perceived for their families because of
involvement in swimming. This general dimension contains one higher-order theme, family
function.
Family Function. The most important subtheme that emerged from this dimension was
father involvement in family activities, and while this did appear in families where the swimmer
was a son, it occurred more frequently in families where the athlete was a daughter. Here, both
mothers and fathers felt that swimming gave the father an opportunity to develop a close
relationship with his children and thus become more integrated with the family, particularly where
the child was female and perhaps would not have been as involved had she been participating in a
more stereotypically female activity:
“I think in our life he would have just would’ve been the dad that came home on the
weekend and said “hi” and I was running everything and doing everything ‘cause that’s
just kind of how I, the way I am and because I needed help. You know, he stepped up, you
know, something that he enjoys. I’m not sure if she was a beauty pageant kid, and I said to
him you know, you’ve got to help put on make-up and spray tan, I’m not sure he would’ve
necessarily wanted to do that. But this was something he enjoyed and he was very
knowledgeable” (F4F).
The remaining subthemes were discussed by low numbers of parents, but all revolve
around the idea that swimming added some structure to family relationships, created family

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conversation and structure, and providing identity as a “swimming family”. Again, these
subthemes were relatively less reported individually, but taken together, parents perceived
swimming as being beneficial to family functioning. For example, the father from Family 5 talked
about swimming providing structure and enhancing relationships,
“I think it’s been a real good for our family in a lot of ways, from a structure stand point, it’s
brought us closer … in some ways its brought her closer, that we're all involved, that we’re all
supporting. We go to swim meets together many times, locally, and there’s no big sister, little
sister animosity. So it’s been a good experience for us” (F5M).

Additionally, the father from

Family 5 goes on to talk about how their daughter being successful in swimming allowed them to
gain notoriety as a swimming family. It was clear that the father enjoyed this success and that he
felt the family had gained the identity of a ‘swimming family’ because of it, “Other people just say
the [Family Name] ‘they swim’, but I think with that there is a bit of notoriety, our daughter,
[Name], has been extremely successful, people recognize that”.
Parent Stressors
Parents cited a multitude of stressors, many of which are congruent with prior research on
sport parent stressors, and some of which are novel to the literature. Analysis of these stressors
resulted in four general dimensions: organizational stressors, competitive stressors, developmental
stressors, and general stressors (see Table 4.). The four general dimensions contain 15 higher-order
themes and 44 lower-order themes, with 1135 raw data citations from all 20 parents.
Organizational stressors general dimension. The general dimension of organizational
stressors refers to stressors that are caused because of parents being involved or embedded within
a particular organization, in this case a particular swimming club. This is the most cited general
dimension by parents, with over 800 raw data citations from all 20 parents. There are eight higher-

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order themes within this dimension: planning and organization, time, organizations (e.g., clubs),
child stressors, social stressors, family stressors, and personal stressors.
Table 4. Parent Perceived Stressors of Involvement in Swimming
General
Dimensions

Higher Order
Themes

Organizational Stressors
(20-825)

Planning and
Organization
(20-218)

Time
(20-215)

Organizations
(18-132)

Child Stressors
(20-99)

Lower Order
Sub-Themes
Themes
Family management and logistics (19-110)
Finances (12-46)
Work-life balance (13-27)
Feelings of lack of control (7-13)
College recruitment (2-8)
Unexpected events (3-4)
Swimming-Life balance (2-4)
Prioritizing (2-3)
Unknowns (1-2)
Continued challenges (1-1)
Time with family(18-56)
Time commitment (17-80)
Time management (17-41)
Time with spouse (12-16)
Time for a social life (10-16)
Lack of personal time (3-6)
Coach Behaviors (16-81)
School vs. club coaches (3-6)
Coaches
(17-94)
Coaching styles (3-5)
Coach Communications (2-2)
Facilities (5-10)
Volunteering (4-9)
Clubs
Club structure and organization (5-9)
(12-38)
Switching clubs (4-7)
Club Communications (1-2)
Athletic Development of child (17-59)
Child Athletic
Injuries (12-23)
Development
Parent teaching vs. child self-learning
(20-87)
(2-5)
Child communications (2-5)
Parent-child conflict (2-2)
Child
Protecting child from sensitive
Interactions
information (1-2)
(6-12)
Child vs. parent priority conflicts (1-1)
Child respect and understanding (1-1)

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Table 4. (Cont’d)

General
Stressors
(4-4)

Developmental
Stressors
(18-101)

Competitive Stressors
(20-205)

Organizational Stressors Cont’d
(20-825)

General
Dimensions

Higher Order Themes

Family Stressors
(19-76)

Social Stressors
(19-70)
Personal Stressors
(10-15)

Expectations and outcomes
at competitions
(20-99)
Watching meets
(16-45)
Lack of swimming
knowledge and needing to
learn the sport
(13-41)
Preparation for meets
(9-20)
Child well-being
(13-64)
School related development
(12-33)
Lack of general
development
(3-4)

Lower Order Themes
Sibling balance (12-19)
Family demographics (11-23)
Multiple parent roles (6-19)
Spousal disagreement and conflict (5-7)
Extended family understanding of swimming
(3-5)
Stress from the other parent in the dyad (1-1)
Family communication (1-1)
Lack of spousal support (1-1)
Other swimming parents (16-48)
Other swimmers (for child) (5-7)
Lack of extended family support (4-4)
Child social networks (3-11)
Lack of energy (5-6)
Guilt (3-5)
Moving house (1-2)
Parents own sport training (1-1)
Communication skills (1-1)
Child expectations and outcomes (18-53)
Parent expectations and outcomes (16-41)
Sibling rivalry (4-5)
Competitive situations (14-26)
Other swimming parents (7-15)
Lack of control at meets (3-4)

Travel for meets (8-17)
Getting ready before a meet (2-3)
Child happiness and motivation (8-34)
Child health and safety (10-30)
Child-student development (11-23)
School transitions (7-10)
Lack of life-skill development (1-2)
Lack of other skill development (2-2)

Child Technology Use
(4-4)

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Planning and organization. The planning and organization higher-order theme represents
the stress parents perceived is associated with a need to be organized in order for the swimming
experience to work. Lower-order themes within planning and organization include family
management and logistics, finances, work-life balance, feelings of lack of control, college
recruitment, unexpected events, swimming-life balance, prioritizing, unknowns, and continued
challenges. Family management and logistics was the largest lower-order theme, with over half of
all raw-data citations from all 20 parents. This lower-order theme relates to parents managing the
logistical challenge swimming brings. The logistical challenge was particularly relevant with
regard to getting members of the family to their required locations at the right time. This challenge
relates equally to practices and meets, but the day-to-day regularity of swimming practices is what
makes this stressor so common across parents. The following quote from the mother of Family 4
demonstrates how challenging and complex the logistics are for her family,
“We would literally plan out our week; ‘can you do morning practice? Can you do this,
can you do that?’ And that’s how we got from point A to point B… we just planned and
planned and planned. And paid people … like this last year before she had a license, I paid
somebody to take her from her school to a meeting spot at Chik-Fil-A and then she met a
group of girls who I then paid for her to get to practice…” (F4F).
Importantly, while this logistical stressor is mentioned by all parents, the actual level of
stress caused by this stressor ranged depending on the family circumstances. Some parents had a
well-worked routine, or had a child that was now old enough to drive, and these reduced the
influence of the stressor. More details regarding this stressor will be discussed in the coping
strategies and case study analyses.

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Finances were a particular stressor for some parents. Swimming as a sport is more
expensive than most people anticipate, with monthly/seasonal pool fees, competition registration
costs, expensive equipment, and transportation costs. Despite the fact that swimming contained
some financial stressors for parents, very few parents were able to give what they considered an
accurate estimate of swimming expenses for each year. The apparent lack of direct knowledge may
again be an indication that while finances are a concern, they are not the most pressing stressor.
This also may be an indication that parents were relatively well-off and did not need to worry about
money. Importantly, no parents directly referred to wanting a performance outcome as a return on
investment, although several did hint at wanting to see improvement and learning as a way of
justifying money spent. Here, the mother from Family 10 discusses how finances are an on-going
juggling act for her family
“Um, we stress, y'know it's always stressful to think about finances, because sometimes
meets get expensive and we end up going to state and then we go to zones and we stay in
hotels so we have to kind of budget our money so we cut back on spending somewhere
else in order to make up for what we need to pay for the extra things… we kind of make
up for that by not buying as many school-type clothes, if they want to buy sweatshirts and
t-shirts (at swim meets) then they're going to wear those to school. So financially are always
kind of a juggling thing” (F10F).
Finally, trying to find a work-life balance was a challenge for most parents, especially as
the logistics of getting their children to practice can be so difficult. One parent in particular, who
worked from home, discussed the challenge of not having the extra time of a drive home to
disconnect from work, along with having to be available for clients on the west-coast late into the
evening as being difficult for finding life-balance

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“… as I mentioned I work out of the house (from home) and I also manage the west coast
while living in the eastern time zone. With a three hour time difference I usually start my
day somewhere between 7:30 and 8 am while a lot of things on the west coast are still
going on up to 9 pm at night. So a lot of people are still reaching out to me, so I’m trying
to attend meetings, still get my daughter to practice, so trying to be in two places at once
and there just doesn’t seem to be a clean cut down time, so I mean that’s really the biggest
stressor” (F1M).
Time. The second most referenced higher order theme within organizational stressors was
time. The lower-order themes all relate to stressors parents experienced with a lack of time brought
around by their child’s swimming; whether that was a general lack of time, lack of time with their
spouse, family and friends, or a lack of personal time. The lower order themes are time with family,
time commitment, time management, time with spouse, time for a social life, and lack of personal
time.
Many parents talked about how the required time commitment (discussed in more detail in
the next paragraph) from swimming means that they have a reduced amount of time with their
family (as well as their spouse, with friends, and by themselves). A reduction in family time was
the most frequently mentioned time stressor by parents, and the loss of family dinner together was
a very common problem cited. A practice that appeared to be valued by most families was no
longer possible with the time commitment and logistical challenge of practice in the evenings,
particularly where there were siblings that had additional sport practices or were younger so need
to eat at a specific time. This quote demonstrates how the father from Family 8 feels about the
reduction in family dinner:

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“… there is a kind of regular meal schedule, like when [Daughter] gets home from school
she gets a meal before she goes to practice, so there is a little bit of regularity there, but in
terms of all four of us, the entire family, being able to sit down for dinner on a regular
basis, which I value, which I think is a good thing, uhh that’s messed up” (F8M).
Most parents recognized that swimming is a major commitment for them as parents, as
evidenced by the logistical challenge. Practices occur at least once a day for much of the year, with
additional morning practices for some of the more elite performers. Add that to the fact that most
competitions occur on weekends, start Friday evening and extend to Sunday afternoon, meant that
the competitive season demands a great deal of time, as reflected here by the father of Family 3,
“Dedicated, very busy, she swims usually Monday through Saturday, two hours a day, and the
swim meets are on the weekends, so they take up quite a bit of time, y'know your whole Friday,
Saturday, Sunday” (F3M). While the interview did not really question if parents found the time
commitment worthwhile, continued involvement would indicate that on some level parents must
recognize the time commitment as being valuable, with the father of Family 9 clearly stating this
when discussing benefits of swimming.
“I think if in the one sense, and I know I share this with a lot of people I talk to but I mean
when I tell people, ‘Yeah my daughter swims at this age level’ they’re like, ‘Well gosh, ya
you got [sic] to a four hour swim meet to watch her swim for a total of five minutes’. Yeah,
that can be, I mean, when you think about that but still in the end it’s, to me, it’s well worth
it. It’s well worth it, all the time and all the time you spend there for such a little time to
watch her compete” (F9M).
Alongside reduced family time and time commitment there was the stressor of time
management. Due to the time commitment and logistics required, parents had to be very good at

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managing their time in order to make sure all activities happen as scheduled, often talking about
all the activities they had to juggle, “… you’re trying to squeeze so much into an evening between
meals and, you know, school activities and then you put (in) the swimming” (F9M). However,
time management did not always just refer to day to day management of time, but also long-term
planning of things like vacations, as stated by the father of Family 7,
“I think it affects my work schedule in terms of when I take my days off … it probably
affects are time together as a family, as to when we take vacation because we have to plan
the somewhat carefully around meets … you don’t want to take two weeks of vacation
right before she’s going to be in the biggest meet of the year” (F7M).
Time with spouse was another lower-order stressor that parents discussed frequently, with
12 parents discussing it as a stressor. In line with parents suggesting they did not get as much time
with their families as they would like, this means that many parents also did not get to spend as
much quality time with their spouse as they would like because of the time commitment required
for swimming. Importantly, while most parents could identify that swimming reduced the time
they spent with their spouse, a smaller number discussed that this might be due only to swimming,
or that if they didn’t do swimming other activities would have a similar influence. Here the mother
of Family 8 discusses the influence swimming has on time with her spouse,
“No, of course not. I don’t know if that’s swim [sic] or just the life of working parents …
that January to March time there isn’t really ‘oh, let’s go out for a Saturday dinner’ because
one or the other of us is at a swim meet until, like I said, 6 o’clock, and then coming home,
crashing and burning … then like in the summer, like so we were saying, ‘let’s just go
away for the weekend just the two of us this summer’…there isn’t one. I mean, so, unless
we leave [Daughter] with the grandparents for the weekend and say ‘hey, can you drive

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her to Michigan State for the weekend while we’re out of town’. So yeah, for sure that
impacts (time with my spouse)” (F8F).
Again, the next lower order theme of time for a social life reflects a similar pattern. Parents spend
so much of their time providing logistical support to their children, and using the remaining time
for family, that there is, in some cases, almost a complete lack of time for a social life. For some
parents this was not a stressor as they were content with their family routine and considered
swimming to have provided them with friends and a social life. However, half of the parents did
suggest a lack of time for a social life was an issue, although as with spending time with their
spouse, parents were sometimes unable to split this from regular family life. Additionally, many
parents talked about having to turn down invitations or struggling to find weekends with friends
who were also busy as parents. Consequently, time for a social life was not the most pressing
stressor for parents. The mother from Family 3 describes that exact scenario “There’s been times
where we’ve maybe had an opportunity to … meet with maybe a friend who I haven’t seen in a
while and that’s their only weekend that they would have available … we’ve already committed
to their events for that date or weekend” (F3F).
Organizations. The next higher-order theme in organizational stressors was organizations.
This higher order theme contains lower-order themes of clubs and coaches. These lower order
themes relate to stressors caused by coaches and their behaviors, and clubs and how they are run.
Coaches. Coaches, both their child’s own coach and coaches from other teams, presented
a number of challenges for parents. Sub-themes for coaches include coach behaviors, school vs.
club coaches, coaching styles, and coach communications. However, the majority of coach
stressors came from coach behaviors. Examples include not providing enough technique
instruction, being too focused on certain strokes or distances, poor squad management, or trying

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to poach swimmers for their own clubs. Sometimes coach behaviors were so discordant with parent
and child goals that families felt that they needed to move clubs in order to get the kind of coaching
they desired. Here the father of Family 5 describes the process of switching swimming clubs (N.B.,
also a stressor in the clubs lower-order theme) because his family felt the coach was not positive
for his children:
“… that was stressful … if you get a job opportunity or you're not happy in your current
job, and your changing, the stress of ‘oh my god am I making the right decision’ … We
loved the current age group coach, that we had, and he was actually the one who suggested
‘you gotta go’. I was on the board so I’m telling the board that I’m leaving for these
reasons. Being we don’t believe that the head coach that you have here is the right coach
for us, quite frankly the right coach for anybody, but, so that was quite, so yeah, that was
stressful” (F5M).
Sometimes parents did not think that coaches were sufficiently skilled to improve the
quality of their child’s swimming, as evidenced here by the father of family three, soon after they
joined their current club after moving from out-of-state:
“They, all the coaches there, swam all their lives, we had three from Turkey, who came to
college and then ended up staying, and then all of the coaches still swam competitively. So
I think they, they pushed them a lot more there, um, yeah, they definitely pushed them a
lot more there and they swam three, about three hours a day” (F3M).
Another subtheme for coaches was the conflict perceived between school and club coaches.
Although mentioned by only three parents, this conflict is deemed worthy of discussing in further
detail because of its novelty in the literature. As suggested in the literature review prior studies
have been conducted mainly in the United Kingdom, where there are not separate school and club

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seasons (Harwoord et al., 2010; Harwood & Knight 2009a; 2009b). The school and club coach
conflict was not directly conflict between the coaches themselves, but more the differences in their
approach to coaching their children and the potentially adverse outcomes of this. As one parent
suggested, coaches are out to win in any way that they can and subsequently an athlete may be put
in different events by each coach or used in a different way for the team. This can make the two
contexts very different for the athlete, primarily causing athlete stress if they feel they are not
getting to participate in their favored events. The mother of Family 8 also points out that the split
between school and club may also influence development over time,
“I’m worried about somebody seeing the whole of [Daughter]. Right, so, the club coach
is going to want, like he’s going to have his trajectory, right? His workout, his needs, his
vision. And then the high school coach will have his workouts and his needs and his vision
for where she should be as an athlete. So I don’t’ know what kind of collaboration or
oversight there is so that they’re not partitioning her or pulling her in opposite directions”
(F8F).
Clubs. Organizational bodies also were perceived to have presented challenges for parents,
and included the subthemes: facilities, club structure and organization, switching clubs, and
communication. A small number of parents came from the same swimming club within a state and
were faced with a club being forced to leave a facility (due to facility owners and management).
That left the parents with a decision of whether to stay with their current club at a worse facility
(outdoors) or join a new club being formed at the previous facility, with most choosing to stay
with the nicer facility. Again, the father from Family 3 was able to compare two swimming clubs
from different states due to their recent move. Their previous club operated out of a new facility
in a much warmer climate, whereas their new club had smaller indoor venues in a much colder

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climate. He was disappointed with the comparison between the two, especially with how facility
size influenced club structure (spread over many pools) “… it's a little divided because some kids
practice here, some kids practice there, and then you all come together. So they don't really know
everybody, whereas in [Southern State], everybody practiced at one pool” (F3M) and swim meet
organization (parents not allowed on deck), “… compared to swimming in a smaller high school
pool, there's differences there, for sure … we're not down there with her … In [Southern State],
since the pools were so big, we were able to be down on the deck even on the meets” (F3M).
A small but important number of parents also discussed stressors with involvement and
volunteering, particularly those that had served on club boards. They felt that while volunteering
was an important task, it was also thankless, and presented additional stressors in terms of time
commitment and complaints from other parents “It’s a thankless job and we don’t get paid for it,
but were trying do it to better my daughter or son [sic] experience and you get people that will
complain about the most ridiculous thing” (F5M). The following quote is a demonstration of one
parents’ experiences with volunteering on a parent board and the subsequent burn out felt:
“… when you find out how sausage is made you don’t really want to eat the sausage
anymore, y’know, it’s kind of like when you become a part of that parent board and you
see how things are really run, everything you have to do, it really burnt me out” (F4M).
Child stressors. Child stressors also were cited as important for parents. What became
apparent during interviews is that parent stress and happiness is very closely tied to that of their
child. If their child is happy, progressing, and relatively stress free, then parents appeared to be
too. Within the child stressors higher-order theme there are two lower-order themes: child athletic
development and child interactions. The importance of each will be discussed below, but the

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important concept to keep in mind is that parents want their child to be happy, and in situations
where they are not, parent stress also will increase.
Child athletic development. All parents in the study expressed concerns with child athletic
development, that is, the progress of their child in terms of their athletic abilities. Subthemes
included athletic development of child, injuries, and parent teaching vs. child self-learning. The
largest sub-theme was parent concerns with athletic development of their child, and it contains a
number of concerns parents had that all relate to potential road-blocks or unknowns in the
development of their child. Decisions to change clubs and coaches serve as typical examples of
stressors regarding athletic development concerns. For example, many parents that either chose,
or were forced, into moving clubs expressed concerns with ensuring that they picked the right
coach or club for their child. Other parents talked about how the outcome of competitive meets
was also stressful, not so much in that performance was poor, but the influence poor performance
had on the enjoyment and motivation of their child. In an extreme example, one mother (Family
2) discussed how multiple setbacks (including many outside of swimming) occurred in the span
of one week for her son. These setbacks presented a challenging situation for both her and her son,
to the point where she struggled to focus at work,
“… it consumed me a lot for a couple of weeks when he was really having a tough time
… like it sometimes I couldn’t focus at work because I’m like ahhhhh I’m so worried about
[Son], he’s so depressed because he, it, like everything hit that week. Not getting in the
Naval Academy, not getting the scholarship, and then bombing on his times and all the
events, he was so depressed, so it was very all consuming…” (F2F).

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As another example, the father of Family 4 discusses how having moved to a new club, it
did not match up with the values they thought it would, leading them to consider moving again to
find a club philosophy more in keeping with their own:
“So we moved clubs … and it hasn’t been the same. Um so we’re actually looking at
possibly moving to a different club. Um that’s up in the air yet. So we’re—and that’s
something that we’re trying to let the girls decide if that’s really what they want to do. This
uh, the other club that we’re looking at joining is a YMCA club, which is, their philosophy
is a little different; more Christian values put into it” (F4M).
Again, this desire for development makes intuitive sense in that parents need to justify the
other stressors they face with some benefit, which would be child improvement. Importantly, while
this sub-theme contains many stressors regarding progress, not all are pure performance gains, but
include mastery and other intangibles like club values (e.g., the Christian values mentioned by the
father of Family 4 above).
Injuries are a special case of athletic development stressors in that they present a road block
to athletic progress over which parents have very little control. If a parent / child does not like a
coach or club he/she can move to a different one, but injuries are not as controllable in the same
way. This lack of control is what made injuries particularly stressful for parents. The mother from
Family 5 describes her personal stress as she watched her daughter struggle with injury:
“… it pains me to see my child hurt and I don’t just mean physically but emotionally and
psychologically. She is the second in the state for breaststroke, earlier in her career and
she’s just to different levels because of her pain and that’s hard to watch. … it just makes
my heart hurt. And that’s the hard part, ya know? Just seeing how much she wants it and
working her heart…” (F5F).

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Unlike prior research that suggested that parents have worries regarding injuries almost
constantly, which is probably driven by the specific sports studied (tennis and soccer in academy
settings), in the present study parents only tended to worry about injuries when they were
happening. The type and frequency of injuries in swimming (assuming good coaching) may be
much more based around repetitive movements (shoulder, elbow, knee) than ballistic and collision
injuries in soccer, and the weight bearing injuries that can occur in tennis. Consequently, injuries
were not an immediate concern for parents and were more surprising when they happened. The
element of surprise also has the potential to make injuries more stressful because they are less
expected.
Child interactions. Additionally, some parents discussed issues surrounding interactions
with their child. These were much less frequently reported, which may point toward generally
harmonious relationships with their child in relation to swimming and in general. Subthemes
include child communications, parent-child conflict, protecting child from sensitive information,
child vs. parent priority conflicts, and child respect and understanding.
Some parents also talked about how they had difficulty in talking to their child, either
through perceptions of not being a good communicator or in meeting the specific individual needs
of their child. For example, the father of Family 4 talked about needing to work on opening up his
communication skills in order to connect with his daughters, “It’s really challenging for me,
personally, to be more, you know, to be able to open up my communication skills for them” (F4M).
Difficulty in talking to their children is important, as communication is potentially the most
important coping strategy parents used (see coping strategies section), particularly with their child.
Barriers in this process then, may increase parent stress by compromising overall coping.

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Parents have other disagreements with their child and differences in priorities. It was
difficult to determine how much of these disagreements were part of normal adolescent
development and how much was directly swimming related. For example, the mother of Family 3
suggested that parent and child goals for involvement may not always be in agreement, “…
sometimes the goals between what the child and parent want may not be on the same page all the
time” (F3F). However, in neither of the raw data examples do parents elaborate on the
disagreement, so it is not clear how and why the goals differed in Family 3. It is not unreasonable
to suggest that there are many conflicts and disagreements between parents and their children
during adolescence, and for only a few parents was disagreement with regard to swimming enough
to mention as part of their interviews.
A potentially important subtheme was protecting child from sensitive information. This
subtheme was unique as a stressor to one parent, although it was used by more as a coping strategy.
It relates to the idea that as a parent you do not share all the information on a sensitive subject or
stress that you have with your child in order to shield them from some stress or upset. Again, as
with parent-child conflict, this is probably not unique to swimming or sport, but it is interesting to
note that is also translates to the sporting context. Interestingly, for most parents this was a coping
strategy, however, the father of Family 9 articulated that shielding his daughter from his stress
meant he and his wife has to shoulder that burden.
“… we don’t want her to feel the effects of the, maybe the stressors that we have. You
know, we want her to just enjoy it. We want her to not have to worry about participating
or any of that. We try and take on that burden ourselves, I guess. So we just want to make
sure it doesn’t, it doesn’t really affect her … it’s just every once in a while you get
something where, okay, you feel like okay swims in — not swim’s in the way, but it’s

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swim—ya know, when we again have this and because we’re so, because our family is so,
ya know, kind of involved with her it’s uh, ya know, [stuttering] never in a million years,
ya know, would I resent any of it but I mean, you’re just like, Oh my gosh, that’s right,
we’ve got swimming. Oh my gosh, we got to do that again tonight” (F9M).
Family stressors. Family stressors are those that come directly from within a family, both
immediate and extended. Lower order themes for family stressors were sibling balance, family
demographics, multiple parent roles, spousal disagreement and conflict, extended family
understanding of swimming, stress from the other parent in the dyad, family communication, and
a lack of spousal support. The lower-order theme with the greatest number of parents reporting the
stressor was sibling balance. This stressor represented when parents had to provide a balance
between two or more siblings with things such as time, money, and the kinds of opportunities and
experiences they are exposed to. Parents were aware that swimming being such a time intensive
sport meant that if another sibling was not taking part, they had to be mindful of the time and
energy they were devoting to swimming in order to ensure they did not favor one child over
another. Here the father of Family 7 discusses how he and his wife felt a constant tension in
ensuring they were equal and fair with all of their children,
“… there’s always that tension, because you know we love all three of them equally and
we want to make sure all three of them have opportunities and that all three of them have
chances to participate in things that they care about whether they have aspirations to do it
for a long (time) or whether it’s just something that they think is fun … So yeah, that
tension I’d say is always there to some degree” (F7M).
The lower-order family stressor with the highest number of raw data references was family
demographics. Parents indicated that the number, age, and gender of their family members,

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particularly children, increased the level of complexity in dealing with other stressors, such as
logistics. For example, some parents felt that having children that were relatively close in age
resulted in a greater logistical challenge because they both had different sport commitments they
needed to get to. Others found that having children that were farther apart in age also caused issues
because they were not involved in swimming or another sport / activity and were at risk from being
dragged around in support of their older sibling. One mother stated, “My son, y'know, sometimes
he'll get a little bored here and there because there is a lot of wait time at swim meets” (F3M). The
stressor of family demographics is inextricably linked to the stressor of sibling balance. The greater
the number of siblings, and the more challenging the age gap (which appears to be parent
dependent), the more difficult the sibling balance appears to be. As one mother stated, “… the
other child… that is difficult, I mean it’s hard on her, you know … I think she doesn’t feel she gets
me 100% of the time like let’s say her sister did at her age” (F1M).
Another potentially important subtheme of family stressors were multiple parent roles. This
is where a parent had more than one role (e.g., parent and coach), and conflict between the roles
occurred, presenting a challenging situation for the parent. This naturally has a lower number of
parents reporting as a stressors because there are fewer coach / administrative roles for parents to
fill, however, it receives the same number of raw data references as sibling balance, suggesting it
is less common, but important. In one example, a parent was a volunteer for her son’s school swim
team and was responsible for the post-senior night meal for the team. During that senior night meet
her son did not perform the way he wanted, missed breaking pool records, and subsequently was
very upset and did not want to join the team for the post meet meal. This left the mother with the
internal struggle between the role of host and provider of food, and mother. It would not be right

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to leave the meal, but also incorrect to not go and console her son, leaving her to make a decision
in which at least one role will not be properly fulfilled,
“…I am the parent coordinator so I plan these meals for 80 swimmers, got to get all the
food together early, set everything up, every home meet, and plan all that, and do the
finances, like I do you know all this stuff to coordinate. So I had to be down in the cafeteria
setting up food, and I keep looking, where’s [Son], I said [Husband], ‘go and see what’s
taking him so long’, as he, everyone else was there, he’s all alone at the pool … I think he
was crying and you can’t see someone crying underwater, and he was very sad … He just
wanted to go straight home, and I said [Husband] ‘don’t let him drive home alone, you go
home with him. [Daughter] and I will stay and clean up the dinner’, and I knew he just
wanted to be alone … it was really hard for me to see him beating himself up and being
depressed and not enjoying and celebrating his achievements when everyone else thinks
he’s doing great, so that’s really hard” (F2F).
Similar conflicts occurred for other parents, but all occurred when parents had an additional
role within a swimming club (coach, board member, volunteer) that meant responsibilities and
professionalism resulted in making situations and communications with others difficult. This dualrole stressor was not reported in previous studies (Harwood, Drew, & Knight, 2010; Harwood &
Knight, 2009a; 2009b), and reflects the fact that academy sports tend to hire elite coaches and have
employed backroom staff, whereas many clubs rely on parents volunteering. The father of Family
10 adds further to this pointed when he described his dual roles of coach and parent,
“…challenge would be are if I thought something wasn't quite right or if the kids come
home saying something. (I’m a) little apprehensive to approach the coaches, because, only
'cause I work with them and you know I try, trying to separate that working with somebody

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and the parent, and y'know either being the parent (or) being the coach, I find that difficult”
(F10M).
Some parents talked about spousal disagreements, which were mainly focused on child
training loads or meet attendance. Using meet attendance as an example, some parent-dyads had
differing viewpoints regarding whether their child should attend a swim meet, from both
developmental and financial perspectives. More specifically, one parent would believe that
attending a particular meet would be beneficial for development and as a reward for qualification,
whereas the other parent would be concerned about the number of meets being attended and the
financial implications of having to pay for a large number of events. The mother of Family 10
explains that exact scenario, “I'm a little more hesitant to let them go to those huge meets when
they're optional. He's like …of course we're going to go, they made it, they're qualified, and I'm
like well …it's going to cost this much money and how important is this meet?” (F10F).
Compromise or prioritization were used to find potential solutions, but the disagreement and
potential for further conflict existed. It is perhaps surprising that spousal disagreement was not
more regularly referenced, but this may reflect either good relationships or social desirability in
answers.
Similarly, other parents also described a feeling of lack of understanding from extended
family members. Questions were raised by extended family members about why swimming
received such a priority, or if so much exercise was beneficial for their child. While these questions
are legitimate, it is clear that parents were making difficult decisions regarding their child’s
involvement. It is particularly stressful to have family members question these decisions,
especially when they may already have some guilt in choosing swimming over certain family
functions. The mother of family 1 succinctly summarizes the challenges, “when you jump in with

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two feet I don’t think people (family) realize what you are jumping into and how much you’re
taking with you on this journey, to be honest. I just don’t think people realize that at all… so that
is kind of stressful on other relationships”. Neither of these subthemes of spousal or family conflict
appeared to be catastrophic for relationships or the most significant stressor parents faced. Both
subthemes represented a relatively small number of parents, but there is potential for them to apply
to a much wider population outside of the study.
Social stressors. Social stressors referred to challenges caused by members of parents
social networks and the social networks of their children, and includes the lower order themes of
other swimming parents, other swimmers (for child), lack of extended family support, and child
social networks. The most often reported social stressor were other swimming parents. In previous
studies other parents have been classified as a competitive stressor. However, while some of the
raw data references are placed within a competitive context, most of the issues with other parents
came from parents within the same club and come from day-to-day attendance at practices.
Therefore, other parents have been described as organizational stressors. A number of stressors
about other parents came from the day-to-day club operations and other parents being overly
negative with regard to coaches or clubs, causing a poor atmosphere for parents, as demonstrated
by the mother of Family 9,
“… (some parents) are going to have issues um with the coaching, um and how it's done,
and, and, it could be done better, different, longer, shorter, whatever and so, um, y'know
they're, they're a particular set of parents that are very vocal about that and wanting um,
y'know the club to change drastically, as far as coaching style and philosophy” (F9M).
It is not surprising that some parents are perceived as negative and complaining when so
many of the participants in this study have stressors regarding coaches and clubs, and (as is

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reported in the coping strategies section of the results) parents use communication with each other
as a way of coping. This tension between needing to talk and needing to find the right person with
whom to talk appeared to be a challenge many parents and swimming clubs face.
The lower order theme of other swimmers (for child) refers to where a child is having a
difficult relationship with another swimmer in their swimming club, which in turn causes stress
for their parent. This stress revolves around the fact that because there is an inherent power
differential between adults and children, the parent cannot directly intervene, they can only try
help their child understand how to deal with other swimmers. Additionally, most of the issues
could be deemed trivial in nature or considered to be part of learning how to interact with other
people, such that they do not demand a discussion between the two parents. Here the father of
Family 11 explains one such situation,
“A couple of years ago there was definitely competitiveness … just kind of kids being kids,
and being competitive, and maybe saying some things to teammates that maybe weren’t,
you know, that weren’t very teammate like. And so she would get upset. And so, as a 10
year old, you’re like, this is supposed to be fun and you’re not having fun because you’re
not getting along with kids on the team … that would be the only time I would say a
swimmer has caused stress, but not directly to me” (F11M).
The next subtheme is child social networks, which focuses on stress caused by those in
their child’s social network. This subtheme is very similar to the subtheme of other swimmers (for
child), but is different in that it related to people parents inferred were friends of their children,
and as such could contain both positive and negative interactions. For example, it might be that
having really good friendships makes squad transitions harder for children and subsequently their
parents. This positive interaction is different from the predominantly negative behaviors

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experienced in the ‘other swimmers’ subtheme. Additionally, these stressors could act more
directly on the parent as they tried to help their children strike a balance between friends and other
life demands, such as extended family or making the right choices for continued swimming
development. For example, the father of Family 4 shows that that conflict between extended family
and teammates “… they like to see their grandparents but they also know that that’s a social time
with their teammates that they sometimes get torn with wanting to stay with grandparents and
spending time with their friends at a swim meet” (F4M). Additionally, he discusses conflict his
daughters had with regard to choosing which practice squad they should be training with,
“… they’ve met really great girls at this other level (after moving down a group due to
injury). So now they’re almost apprehensive about moving back up because they really like
them. But they (girls in lower squad) don’t train as hard as the other girls do (in higher
level squad) and they’re not as committed to it. So they like them as people but they know
that if they want to get better and be faster, they need to go back to the other group. It’s
kind of a Catch-22 there for them…” (F4M).
Personal stressors. Finally, the higher-order theme of personal stressors contained a
number of lower-order themes that related to personal stress exacerbated by having a child
involved in swimming, including a lack of energy, guilt, decisions regarding moving house, own
sports training, and communication skills. These themes were reported by half of all participants,
but individual sub-themes had a much lower number of parent citations, thus indicating that
personal stressors are highly idiosyncratic (note: some of these will be detailed in case study
analyses). Lack of energy was reported by the largest number of parents, and related to how the
logistical challenge, alongside work commitments meant parents felt they expended a lot of energy
on swimming. The following quote from the mother of Family 1 describes how the nightly family

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schedule leads to a lack of time and energy, which in turn influences the amount and quality of
communication between her and her husband “…I mean by the time we finish with practices and
running around, and get kids fed, (and) in bed, we crawl into bed and we have 10 minutes to talk
and ok we’re beat, we’re asleep…” (F1F). While not spending enough time with her husband is a
stressor, the root causes are a lack of time and energy.
Competitive stressors general dimension. Parents often found competitions and the
competitive environment challenging, and this general dimension contains themes that refer to that
competitive environment. The higher order themes within competitive stressors are expectations
and outcomes at competitions, watching meets, lack of swimming knowledge and needing to learn
the sport, and preparation for meets.
Expectations and outcomes at competitions. This higher-order theme refers to the
expectations parents and children have, and then the perception of and reaction to, competition
outcomes (including sibling rivalry). Child expectations and outcomes was the most frequently
reported lower-order theme and was where parents perceived stress based on the expectations
children had for themselves, particularly where children had set lofty goals and consequently the
potential not to make them. This was stressful for parents because of the potential child reaction
to the outcomes: disappointment, upset, silence, and difficult car rides home in which they have to
try and judge the emotional reaction of their child and respond appropriately. As this quote
demonstrates, parents had apprehensions heading into meets in case goals were not met and then
the stress associated with reactions if failure results. As one father said,
“… she was again, 5/100ths of a second (away from a junior national cut), her expectations
now is different than the summer before, right?, ‘oh my goodness dropped a bunch of time,
just missed it, disappointed, but next year I’m getting it’. So now we up to this year, so that

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summer ‘oh my god what if she doesn’t make it’, right? You’re so close. So there is a stress
… prelims comes, erm she does not have a quality swim, so the stress of coping with that
in-between and her being y’know frustrated, y’know crying, disappointed, trying to pull
herself up, try you’re saying ‘hey, you got tonight, you can do this tonight’, erm kind of
thing. That’s the stress because your, your, your like your heart is broken, because your kid
has put a thousand percent into this and her goal hasn’t been met, y’know’ (F5M).
Parent expectations and outcomes stressors were situations where parents held expectations
for meets and then when their child failed to perform up to expectations, had to deal with their own
disappointment. As an example, the mother of Family 2 described how she and her husband had
similar hopes for their son as he did for himself,
“… you know I had secret dreams like ohh you know if my son wins the state title I mean
how proud are you if that happens? And he really we believed he had a chance. So you
have, you don’t ever really want to tell people like you’re hoping for this because then if it
doesn’t happen you have to go like oh I failed or whatever, so it’s like your secret little
hope or whatever, and so we had the same kind of hopes and dreams for him so we were
disappointed too” (F2F).
The hopes and dreams of parents seeing their children be successful is important, as one of
the benefits that was elicited through interviews was child success (either via outcome or mastery)
and as such most parents have these expectations. One of the things that makes these expectations
potentially more difficult is that they are almost silent hopes within a parent-dyad, and there is a
need for an external presentation strategy. The following quote is a continuation of the quote from
the father of Family 5 discussing his expectations for his daughter at a big meet and the outcomes
of parent stress. The emphasis here is that he refers to the event as our Olympic trials.

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“I know there’s different heart breaks for everybody in different events, y’know, finishing
third at the Olympic trials an all that kinda stuff, but this is our, y’know, this our Olympic
trials, in, in this moment today, and, so y’know, obviously she’s with the team, we were
with parents, erm, but, I will tell you it was a stressful afternoon” (F5M).
The subthemes of child expectations and outcomes, and parent expectations and outcomes
are individual sources of stress, but are also linked. There is an additive effect when a mismatch
in perceptions of performance outcomes between parent and child exists, for example, if a child
perceived a negative outcome and the parent perceived a positive outcome. Additionally, in the
circumstance that both parent and child perceive a negative performance outcome, stress is also
increased. When a child perceives a negative event and the parent does not, then the parent must
provide emotional support to the child, which is often not easy. Similarly, if an event has gone
badly and parents also feel disappointment about an outcome, they try to hide their own personal
disappointment (in general) in order to provide the right support to their child, but this is easier
said than done.
Watching meets. The second higher-order theme within the competitive stressors general
dimension was watching meets unfold. Parents reported experiencing a number of stressors while
being observers at meets, and these were represented by the lower-order stressor themes of
competitive situations, other swimming parents, and lack of control at meets. Competitive
situations stressors represented the stress some parents felt when watching their child swim
(particularly as it relates to expectations and outcomes). It is important to note however, that this
is not always a negative stress, and in fact many parents enjoy the competitive experience because
of the associated excitement. That said, many parents refused to describe it as a ‘stressor’ because
of the strong belief that stress is always negative, and if they did have some anxiety they played

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down its intensity. There was clearly a perception that nervous parents at meets are a bad thing,
and this may well be linked to parents trying to keep their own expectations in check so they do
not unduly influence their child. Additionally, many parents suggested that the stress level they
feel is much greater at the end of the season, when there is more riding on the outcome of an event,
than the beginning of the season. In this instance those parents talked about increased heart rate or
behaviors that indicate anxiety (such as pacing) have been included in the results. The mother from
Family 9 sums up these divergent feelings regarding watching meets perfectly.
“… Um, um, sometimes I do get very nervous, and y'know I do say "oh I can't watch!", but
I enjoy it and for the most part it's very, very fun so, y'know, but there are a couple of meets
there at the end of the season where I do get pretty nervous” (F9F).
Some of the parents also perceived a lack of control over events at swim meets. Swim
meets, unlike some sports, generally have a much greater separation distance between the parent
and athlete, which makes communication difficult. For example, parents at a youth soccer match
are right there on the sideline and can audibly be heard by their child. At swim meets parents are
often stuck in the bleachers, in a loud environment, out of contact with their child. The lack of
contact presents a challenge, especially when parents feel that their child is not doing what they
are supposed to or that someone else might be interfering with their child’s event preparation,
“… you worry about you know who’s talking to them or what they’re doing are they
prepared are they watching the times you know? … are they paying attention? You know,
is someone else talking to them that might psych them out? You know, are they warming
up, are they stretching? (Laughs)” (F3F).
Lack of swimming knowledge and needing to learn the sport. Having a lack of knowledge
about swimming and needing to learn about the sport was one of the strongest stressors for parents.

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It represents how parents did not know the sport of swimming when their child started, for
example: understanding how meets worked or how equipment needed to be maintained. Yet in
order for their child to be successful and benefit from involvement, parents needed to learn the
ropes quickly. For most parents it was a historical stressor that was relevant when they first got
into the sport, but has subsequently become more manageable. A reason why this lack of
knowledge may have been elicited as a stressor, compared to previous studies (Harwood et al.,
2010; Harwood & Knight, 2009a; 2009b), is a difference in the sports studied. The previously
studied sports of tennis and soccer have a much wider global audience such that people understand
the rules and structure of competition more clearly than perhaps swimming, which comes to the
fore once every four years for the Olympics (Harwood et al., 2010; Harwood & Knight, 2009a;
2009b). That is not to say there is not a learning curve for those sports, but it is perhaps less steep.
The mother from Family 1 talked about how she had washed swimsuits on one occasion and put
them on hooks to dry on another, both of which damage the suits and reduce their useful life. These
mistakes prove costly in the long run and also incurred the derision of her daughter, “I did wash
her swimsuits, and she’s like ‘mom don’t wash my swimsuits’!” (F1F). Here the father from
Family 2 describes some of the challenges he and his wife had learning about meets and the speed
with which he had to learn,
“The first probably five years we had no idea what was going on … when [Son] first
showed up and he did the tryout and they said there’s a dual meet, I’m like ‘what’s a dual
meet?’ I had no idea and then they said he’s going to do fly, it’s like ‘is that butterfly?’
You know I just had no idea, umm ‘what’s a 25?’ Didn’t know, you know, umm and then
the whole concept of warm up time versus meet time, I had no idea what they were talking

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about, and so I’d show up, we’d show up at the pool like an hour earlier than warm up time,
they’re like ‘what are you doing here so early?’ I don’t know!” (F2M).
Preparation for meets. After expectations have been set, but before meets begin, there is
the preparation for a meet, another area in which parents perceive stress, represented by the lower
order themes: travel for meets and getting ready before a meet. Travel for meets encompasses a
number of subthemes that may be associated with travel in most circumstances, such as packing,
logistics, finding accommodations, and the distance of travel required. Considering the relatively
low number of parents discussing this theme, the consensus on what about travel was stressful was
quite diverse, but the mother of Family 1 shows in the following quote that travel often involves
multiple stressors. “… you have to be there at the pool at 7am … it’s honestly the packing and the
rushing in the morning is just really hard, and when you have another one (child) … just
remembering everything in the hotel room” (F1F). Additionally, the father from Family 2
discussed how the distances of travel are surprising to him “… where I grew up the travel team
traveled 15 minutes. There were 27 hockey rinks in a fifteen mile radius from my house … It’s
different here, so much distance to cover” (F2M).
Developmental stressors general dimension. The third general dimension of stressors
was developmental stressors. These are stressors parents perceived regarding the development of
their child outside of the swimming context, but influenced by the child involvement in swimming.
There are three higher order themes: child well-being, school related development, and lack of
general development.
Child well-being. The first lower-order theme was child well-being, and this refers to the
health and happiness of offspring as influenced by swimming and contains the subthemes child
happiness and motivation, and child health and safety. Child happiness and motivation was where

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parents reported being concerned that the demands of swimming, both physical and psychological,
influence happiness and motivation outside of swimming. For example, parents talked about
swimming being a large part of their children’s lives because they choose to dedicate so much time
to it. Consequently when their child’s perception of performance or progress in swimming are not
up to standard, then there can be changes in motivation and happiness outside of swimming. The
mother of Family 5 discusses how she felt happy when one of her daughters withdrew from an
event at a swim meet because of the influence it could have had on her emotional well-being,
“…like the last meet she swam in, she hasn’t swam in a meet in quite some time just
because she’s not been able to, the last meet she swam in she swam two events and then
scratched the rest because she was like, ’I’m done, this is not…’ And I was glad she did
that actually. Because it was just defeating her over and over and over again and it was not
productive um in terms of her emotional well-being” (F5F).
Similarly, parents were concerned that swimming activities also can influence the health
and safety of their child and that this would have negative effects on their overall development.
Some of the most simple and common concerns were child lack of sleep, child diet, “I've noticed
as they've gotten older is that I really need to watch their diet, because they burn up so many
calories that I worry about their nutrition” (F10F). Parent concerns about the possibility of an
accident when their children drove themselves (and siblings) to practices when they were old
enough to drive were also raised. On one hand child driving reduces the logistical challenge for
parents, but it also increased stress because they had concerns with safety. This is not be unique to
swimming with regard to parent concerns with adolescent safety while driving. However, the
requirements to drive early morning perhaps are. The father from Family 2 reflects on the
compromise his family made in allowing his son to drive,

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“… we don’t really like to make him drive her either … you know safety and things like
that, it’s a big responsibility, and he’s been driving for a few years so we feel more
comfortable with it, but we had a rule at first that he just wasn’t allowed to drive his sister
‘cause he was a new driver and you know something could happen and we didn’t want that
to be on his shoulder, his conscious for the rest of his life” (F2F).
Some health concerns were more complex and revolved around individual child health
issues that are exacerbated by swimming. The father of Family 1 described some of the difficulties
they have dealt with regarding their daughter when he said,
“she’s got some very severe allergies … very highly allergic to rage weed, dust mites …
she was sick a lot during high school season last week, or last year, where she was having
trouble breathing and everything. Had to pull her out of the pool a couple times at practices,
just so even the coaches were concerned” (F1M).
School related development. The lower order themes in school related development
included child-student development and school transitions. Similar to previous research, over half
the parents suggested they had concerns and experienced stress regarding their child’s education
being influenced by swimming, otherwise known as the ‘school-pool balance’. As already
established, swimming was a huge time commitment for parents and the athlete. While parents
have had a number of years practicing how to deal with such time commitments, it is a new
endeavor for the youth athlete. Therefore, many parents had concerns that swimming was taking
up so much time that it had an adverse effect on school. While most parents talked about school
being the number one priority, swimming also was a priority, and trying to find that balance was
difficult, especially if the child was highly motivated to swim. The following excerpt from the

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interview with the father of Family 5 reveals how that balance between school and pool can be a
concern for parents.
“… quite frankly it wasn’t us, it was our daughter saying ‘I’m not missing practice’. So I
don’t know, I can 100% tell you that we have told our daughter, ‘you are, are exhausted,
you have an exam, stay, why don't you not to go to morning practice?’ and the answer was
‘I'm not doing that’ …. we almost had to talk her off the ledge saying, ‘stop, its ok catch
your breath’. Particularly in high school when academic rigor increased” (F5M).
As eluded to in the previous quote, transitions between elementary and middle school,
middle and high school or high school and college, came with increases in academic rigor and
potential changes in sport involvement. These transitions also often presented challenges for
parents because they could no longer stay with established routines and habits, along with some
unknowns about how the process (e.g., of changing school) worked. For some parents there were
concerns prior to these changes, although they appeared to be relatively low level stressors. The
mother from Family 8 discussed some of her thoughts regarding the transition to high school, and
while it is clear she has some unanswered questions, she also does not seem too concerned, “I’m
not sure what the transition to high school (will be like) and how you negotiate club sports and
high school sports. You know, I have some questions about that, but I know that will sort itself
out” (F8F). For others that were in the midst of a transition, the stress level was higher, as
illustrated in the following quote from father of Family 9.
“Yes. Huge. [laughs]. I think really that this past year was the first year that was a big
stressor … when she moved from elementary school to middle school, and just the quantity
and quality of the, of the school work that was expected of her, then yeah, those, and then

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being a middle school aged swimmer her practices were longer and so yes, we were
balancing, some late nights trying to get schoolwork done…” (F9M).
Lack of general development. Finally, a small number of parents talked about concerns
they had regarding lack of life-skill development and lack of other skill development (e.g., skills
relating to other interests) as stress sources. Similar to concerns with school related development,
parents believed that swimming may actually be hampering the development of the other skill sets.
For example, the mother of Family 7 described how she would like there to be more time for her
daughter to develop other passions in life:
“I would just say that probably she had the potential [in] other areas of her life that she
can’t develop because of time. You know so other interests I think it’s limiting her in terms
of you know, learning to play other sports, she is interesting in baking. You know
developing that skill to a higher level. Sometimes socially having more friends outside of
swimming, so I think it has limited her, which makes me sad” (F7F).
However, the small number of parents mentioning this stressor, along with the fact that
they continue to have their child involved in sport suggests that while this stressor may resonate
with some parents, it is not the most pressing stressor experienced.
General stressors general dimension. These stressors are not specifically related to
athletics or swimming, but they do influence other stressors, such as lack of sleep or
communication. The only higher-order theme in the general dimension was child technology use.
It refers to how parents perceived use of technology, particularly smart phones, as being potentially
problematic; either through overuse and not getting enough sleep, or using text as a main method
of communication instead of calling. Here the mother from Family 5 discusses how she believes
electronics are hurting sleeping patterns for her children, “They don’t get as much sleep as I’d like

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to see them get. That’s probably the thing that bothers me. Um, and that is a result of that [sic]
stupid electronics sometimes [laughs]”. Each parent discussed child technology use manifesting
as a stressor in a different way, and included taking focus away from homework and reducing
quality of communication within the family. This theme is novel to the literature of youth sport
parent stressors (Harwood, Drew, & Knight, 2010; Harwood & Knight, 2009a; 2009b), but with
regard to parenting in general, electronic device use is already a concern for parents (Pew Research
Center, 2011). The Pew Research Center found some 64 % of a sample of 799 parents were either
very- or somewhat concerned about their child’s internet and cell phone usage taking time away
from face-to-face interactions with friends and family (2011). Additionally, over time it could be
expected that with the proliferation of personal electronic devices that this technology use theme
will grow over time.
Parent Coping Strategies
Parents discussed the use of multiple coping strategies, and analysis of the coping strategies
discussed during participant interviews allowed the researcher to identify nine general coping
strategy dimensions: justification for swimming involvement, communication, support, child
focused coping, parent actions, planning and organization, passive coping, psychological skills,
and short-term strategies (see Table 5). The nine coping strategy general dimensions contain 38
higher-order themes, 48 lower-order themes, and 1804 raw data citations from all 20 parents.
Justification for swimming involvement general dimension. The general dimension of
justification for swimming involvement contains two higher order themes: holding an active
philosophy for participation in swimming and goals for swimming involvement. Overall it
represented the reasons why parents had their child involved in swimming, what their philosophy
was for that involvement, and some of the goals they hoped their child would achieve through their

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involvement. The overarching reason for this as a set of coping strategies was that if parents had
reasons for their child to be involved in swimming, they were better able to place their stress in
the context of it helping the develop their child or give them some valuable experience – in other
words, the ends justify the means.
Holding an active philosophy for participation in swimming. Holding an active
philosophy includes the subthemes prioritization of resources, perspective taking, role following,
trusting coaches’ knowledge, previous experience, boundary setting, and keeping a child-centered
focus. An active philosophy works as a coping strategy, as it allows for parents to place stress
experienced in the context of what they want out of the swimming experience. Considering
perspective taking and prioritization in particular, parents were able to take a step back from a
situation and remind themselves why their child is in swimming, and subsequently prioritize where
to put time, effort, money, and family resources.
The mother of Family 1 summarizes the idea that having a way of taking a greater
perspective, here the developmental opportunity for her daughter, can help reduce stress, “I just
think that we kind of look at it as its priceless, life is short and it’s only for a certain period of time
… it’s a priceless learning experience” (F1F). Another example from the father of Family 5 showed
that he prioritized swimming even though it can be time consuming and stressful because it is
something that the family has internalized as part of their identity,
“… you either accept it and its part of your fabric as a family, and I wouldn’t trade. I would
[sic] say, 'oh my god it’s been the worse years of our life'... y’know, has it been like ‘oh
my god I’m exhausted?’ Yes, sure you get those moments you get home late, you got finals
on Sunday night, and you get home ‘cause you’re driving from [City], which is a two and

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half hour drive, and your arriving at ten o’clock in the morning … (if you want to) complain
about, then don’t do it” (F5M).
Table 5. Parent Perceived Coping Strategies for Involvement in Swimming

Child focused
coping
(20-166)

Support
(20-254)

Communication
(20-333)

Justification for swimming
involvement
(20-568)

General
Dimensions

Higher Order Themes
Holding an active
philosophy for
participation in
swimming
(20-509)

Goals for swimming
involvement
(15-59)
Within family
communication
(20-209)
Outside of family
communication
(20-116)
Limit knowledge
transfer to other people
(6-8)
Support internal to
social networks
(20-170)
Support external to
social networks
(19-84)

Parent led coping
(19-96)

Lower Order Themes
Prioritization of resources (20-161)
Perspective taking (19-171)
Role following (18-63)
Trusting coaches knowledge (15-31)
Previous experience (14-26)
Boundary setting (11-49)
Keeping a child-centered focus (4-8)
Mastery focus (11-24)
Enjoyment (5-10)
Successful outcomes (3-16)
Parent setting expectation limitations (3-6)
Encouraging child to diversify skills (2-3)
Child communication (20-130)
Spousal communication (17-62)
Family communication (10-17)
Other swimming parent communications (19-53)
Coach communications (19-49)
Club communications (7-11)
Apologizing to others (1-2)
Ignoring social boundaries (1-1)

Friends and extended family (19-89)
Parents sharing responsibilities (18-79)
Nuclear family (2-2)
Seeking professional help (11-25)
Flexible work schedules (11-17)
Use of technology (10-18)
Prayer and faith (6-18)
Paying non-professionals for help (3-6)
Using emotional intelligence (16-59)
Modelling behavior and mentoring (8-16)
Protecting child from sensitive information (6-14)
Spending time with daughter (2-3)
Closing the subject (2-3)
Note taking of facts important to daughter (1-1)
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Table 5. (Cont’d)
General
Dimensions

Higher Order
Themes

Lower Order Themes

Following child knowledge and leadership (15-37)
Promoting child accountability and responsibility (13-31)
Mature child emotional responses (1-2)
Being opportunistic (10-18)
Distraction techniques (10-16)
Actions that
Researching (8-20)
could apply
across contexts Physical activity (8-17)
(19-96)
Multi-tasking (8-15)
Logical problem solving (5-10)
Involvement and volunteering (10-22)
Actions that
Learning the spot and gaining experience (8-20)
apply directly to
Change clubs/coaches/squads (8-20)
swimming
Coach other coaches (1-4)
(17-67)
Being comfortable at meets (1-1)
Making short- and long-term plans to be organized (19-104)

Short-term
Strategies
(5-13)

Psychological
Skills
(17-40)

Passive Coping
(20-124)

Planning and
Organization
(20-143)

Parent Actions
(20-163)

Child led coping
(18-70)

Management of family members (13-20)
Developing routine (13-17)
Finding a way to make things happen (2-2)
Disengagement (13-25)
Avoidance (9-26)
Frustration and anger (9-17)
Deliberate lack of knowledge (8-15)
Inoculation (8-15)
Compromise (4-16)
Acceptance (5-6)
Denial (2-2)
Guilt (1-1)
Hope (1-1)
Positive thinking (8-13)
Self-talk (4-8)
Mindfulness (4-4)
Goal-setting (4-4)
Self-control (3-5)
‘Right now’ thinking (3-4)
Having awareness of potential injuries (2-2)
Humour (3-7)
Emotional response (2-2)
Spending on credit card (1-2)
Lack of sleep (1-1)
Alcohol (1-1)
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The following quotes from the mother of Family 8 demonstrates that because swimming is
a priority it influences where money is spent in the family, “… it’s just priorities, right? So…that’s
you know, if my estimate is decent and it’s about 10 grand, then, okay, well that’s a vacation or
new furniture, or something like those sorts of things that don’t happen so that swim and soccer
can happen” (F8F). However, when it comes to swimming vs. school, the priority still lies with
school, demonstrating a hierarchy of priorities for this family, “… there are times where we just
say, ‘you need to think about what you’re prioritizing’. And as important as swim is, I think in our
family collective, it still falls secondary to academic work” (F8F). The concepts of perspective
taking and prioritization are heavily linked, as this quote shows,
“…and watching what they achieve to me makes it worthwhile money wise, because yeah,
we could easily drop back I mean and get more money because of that or just have her do
a different club and not even USA let’s say, you know what I mean? I mean not even have
her do like every season, I mean like she wants, because that’s what she wants to do, when
she wants to swim every 12 months out of the year (laughing) you know so we could cut
that back if we really wanted to. But it’s a choice we made and we just have to become
comfortable with that and remind ourselves why we’re doing it, and it’s really an
investment in her future for her” (F1F) .
Role following was the third most referenced lower-order theme. This is where parents
engaged in behaviors that follow norms ascribed to specific roles. This was done to enhance
participation in swimming, either by fulfilling necessary duties or interacting with their child in a
way that was more positive. Sometimes these roles were in co-ordination with their spouse and
sometimes separate. Additionally, the roles are sometimes situation specific, such as the way they
approach the post-meet discussion. It appeared playing a role, with pre-determined ways of acting,

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was useful as a coping strategy because it allowed parents to rely on behaviors which had been
successful previously and not have to determine how to behave on an ad hoc basis. However, it
should be noted that these roles are sometimes not the desired role for a parent, but one they assume
through necessity. In the excerpt below, the father of Family 9, discusses how his role as a parent
at swimming meets involved not cheering because he is a coach at the club, thus he has to moderate
how he behaves for the benefit of his children.
“I try not to cheer. My kids don't like it when I cheer, they only want to hear my voice if
they're not doing something right, you know? So if they don't hear my voice then they think
they're doing everything they're supposed to be doing. Their splits are where they're
supposed to be or they're on pace for a best time or something like that. They react to that
just from listening to me for so many years” (F9M).
In the following quote the mother of Family 4 describes how she acts to balance out the
intensity of her husband with regard to swimming.
“Well, I feel like that’s [Husband]'s job, I mean [Husband] shakes when she swims.
[Husband] knows every time, he could probably tell you her times from when she was
eleven … I just I try to stay away from that as that just makes you too nervous. I think it's
interesting because you know it's one parent is over focused, I'm not saying [Husband] is,
one parent is focused on it you as the other half doesn't have to be focused on that...I don't
think”
Trusting coaches was another important subtheme of coping for parents. Parents discussed
that one of the best ways to control stress, particularly that related to the development of their
child(ren) as athletes, was to have faith in the coach and trust that he or she has extensive
experience and/or training for the position. Many of the parents understood the difference between

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the roles of parent and coach, but sometimes had to be mindful of when they needed to let the
coach do their job and trust them with it. This trust related to decisions regarding training,
competitions, coaching behaviors, and injuries. The mother and father of Family 7 both discussed
having faith in their daughter’s coaches for different reasons. The father explained how his own
lack of knowledge in the sport meant he had to trust coach judgement, reducing his own stress,
while the mother trusted the coaches with their approach regarding coaching behaviors, even when
they were strict or pushed athletes.
“…trusting the coaches has probably helped us too … I was not a swimmer as I said earlier
so I don’t feel like I have a lot of expertise in that sport. And I know that they have way
more than I do so having a certain amount of trust in their training plan and schedule in
what they’re planning has probably helped reduce that stress” (F7M).
“… it’s nice if they’re nice, but it doesn’t impact me too much and she’s pretty tough …
we’ve always said that they’re coach, that’s their job, they’re coach. They have to accept
that (is what) we are paying them for, we want them to be hard, that’s what they are there
for … I would much rather have a coach that’s working well for her, with results, than have
a buddy” (F7F).
Many parents talked about how being able to rely on previous experience was an important
coping strategy. This referred to previous experience with an exact scenario (e.g., injury),
experience that was only somewhat related (e.g., car breakdowns, dealing with travel), or learning
from continued involvement in swimming (e.g., when to push their child and when to walk away).
Either way, previous experience gave parents an added perspective and confidence that they could
deal with a situation that presented itself. Importantly, this coping strategy, perhaps over all others,
demonstrates that coping is a process, and one that adapts over time. Learning is a big part of this

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strategy, but it applies equally well to other coping strategies presented, as none of the parents
claimed to have arrived at the perfect coping strategies immediately. Here the mother of Family 1
talks about how she has little stress concerning injuries to her daughter in swimming “… it’s part
of sport. I mean you’re going to strain something here and there, I know that personally, you just
do, and actually it’s been helpful because my daughter has seen me injure myself, I’ve torn a
hamstring, she’s seen what it is like, yeah it’s a setback, but its how you work through it” (F1F).
On a slightly different note, the father of Family 7 discusses how he has learned to interact more
effectively with his daughter over time.
“I think probably is something that you just learn through experience. I tend to want to be
more competitive so when she was younger my tendency was always to want to kind of
push more but I think as the years have gone by I have learnt that is not necessarily what
she needs to be successful, so it’s a little bit, trial and error. She doesn’t necessary always
respond to that type, she tends to do better with encouragement, rather than me placing the
stress on her to do well” (F7M).
Finally we have boundary setting, which is where parents consciously put limitations on
what they were willing to do and not do in order to pursue swimming. In the same way that a
professor might boundaries on when he or she is willing to reply to student emails to ensure they
do encroach on other aspects of their work-life balance, parents engage in similar behaviors.
Boundary setting could be considered similar to prioritization, but the difference is that
prioritization is a hierarchy of priority of several activities, whereas boundary setting is the
protection of one event or activity over all others.
Sometimes these boundaries are physical, such as creating a divide between work (the
basement office at home) and home (the rest of the house) life, and some were more abstract (not

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doing double practices in the summer). As a more detailed example, one boundary that was
mentioned by multiple parents was the idea of missing a practice session in order to rest, spend
time together as a family, or complete homework. This was not necessarily a regular occurrence,
but parents were able to ‘get a read’ on when these days were required for their child or the family
as a whole. Below are two examples from the mother of Family 8 and the father of Family 5.
“I think probably every, like once every two weeks or three weeks, there’s a day where we
all look at each other and go ‘no, nope, nobody’s going anywhere this evening, we’re going
to stay home and veg as a family’. Umm…so I don’t know if that’s a time out, or what,
how you’d name that coping strategy, but I would say every couple of weeks there is a bit
of a reset day” (F8F).
“Sundays was no swim day, no practice. So that’s (the day) my daughter caught up on her
homework on Sundays or got ahead on Sundays. We didn’t have any stress for that unless
there was a swim meet. Her swim meets are generally once a month, so you kind of plan
around that so it didn’t all consume you” (F5M).
Goals for swimming involvement. Alongside the philosophy parents had for why their
child was involved, they also had goals for their involvement, represented by the subthemes
mastery focus, enjoyment, successful outcomes, parent setting expectation limitations, and
encouraging child to diversify skills. Here, based on the philosophy parents had developed for
involvement in swimming, they set goals for that involvement, most of which come out as putting
forth effort and improving, or in short, a mastery focus. Understanding the need for a mastery
focus was relatively easy for most of the parents who discussed it, to identify. However, a big part
of their use of a mastery focus as a coping strategy was helping their child understand the need for
a mastery focus and thus keep competitive outcomes and expectations in check. The need to focus

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on oneself for practice and competition, and on self-referenced improvement is described here by
the father of Family 4
“I think it was also learning that with swimming you’re always competing against yourself
and not trying to compare them to how others are doing. That’s hard, that’s hard as a
swimmer not to do when you see some people are dropping times and you’re not. Or I’m
training just as hard as them or I work harder in practice but they’re still dropping time,
why can’t I? So you’re competing against yourself every time, you’re competing against
the clock, you know, for time. And getting to understand that versus what I grew up with,
(where) you were always competing against someone else” (F4M).
Parents, unsurprisingly given the benefits of swimming cited in the study, want the
experience to be enjoyable. This might mean making swimming fun for their child, but for some
parents it also meant making the experience fun for themselves by not becoming overly invested.
When asked for advice for other swimming parents, the mother of Family 9 highlighted the
importance of enjoying the experience, “you do end up spending a lot of time with, with the same
people, year round, and so you do have very strong bonds that are formed and the kids form strong
bonds and parents form strong bonds with each other and with other kids, and so, to enjoy that”
(F9F). The following exert from the mother of Family 8 highlights the need for the experience to
be fun for both parent and (especially) child, otherwise the point of participation may be being
missed.
“…as much as I’ve said that time draw is a challenge, I find that, and I’ve said to parents,
that it’s just such a great experience for the kids. And they have a blast, and I think they
get a lot out of that moment of competition. So I’ve kind of encouraging people to walk
into the wrath rather than negotiate it. … And my advice would be very, you do it as long

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as it’s mostly fun, right? And when you’ve crossed that line something needs to pull back”
(F8F).
It is apparent in talking to individual parents that much of their philosophy and goals for
involvement were shared with their partner, as parents discussed having very similar thoughts
regarding this general dimension. As will be discussed further during case study analysis results,
parents often come to these philosophies and goals together as ideal coping will exist where both
parents have similar outcomes in mind. A mismatch in philosophy and goals would make things
such as perspective taking, prioritizing, or boundary setting more challenging and overall coping
less effective. The way in which parents shared their values is through communication, which is
the next general dimension.
Communication general dimension. The communication general coping dimension was
the second most referenced and perhaps the best articulated group of coping strategies.
Communication appeared to be one of the most important coping strategies used by parents, as it
formed the basis for all other forms of coping, in that if parents do not communicate with others it
is very difficult to coordinate other coping strategies, such as planning and organization It
contained three higher order themes: within family, outside of family, and limiting knowledge
transfer to other people. All three of these higher-order themes contained both verbal and nonverbal communications, such as email or text, with people important to family and swimming
contexts.
Within family communication. Communication within the family unit included
communications between parent and child (child communication), between parents (spousal
communication), and with all members of the family (family communication). Beginning with
child communication, what became clear in analyzing the results regarding stressors is that the

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stress of the parent and child were highly interwoven. Therefore, much of the coping was childrelated in a way that if the child stress is removed, parent stress also is reduced. This is why child
communication as a coping strategy was so important to parents; it provided them with an
opportunity to discuss and reduce stressors. Parents discussed talking with the child about
outcomes of races, reasons for prioritization, and coaches, among others. In doing so they better
helped their child understand a situation and reduced their own stress in the process. In the
following quote the mother of Family 1 discusses how she talked with her eldest daughter a
decision she and her husband had taken to not take her to a swim meet because they needed to
attend the first communion of their other daughter and provide sibling balance.
“A good example of that would have been this weekend, she [Youngest Daughter] had a
recital and she had first communion, [Eldest Daughter] had a swim meet this weekend …
well too bad…. It’s her first communion, it’s her recital, so she didn’t, [Eldest Daughter]
couldn’t do any of it. You know, so you have to just I think talk to the athlete and say this
is life, there’s things, it’s not all swimming it’s just not. There’s other things we have to
do, I mean we have to participate in her life because life is too short and we need to do this
So that’s how I deal with it is talking to [Eldest Daughter] and telling her, and talking,
really a lot of talk.” (F1F).
Parents also communicated regularly with their spouse. Important in helping co-ordinate
efforts for logistical issues, working through emotions, and solving problems logically and
ensuring they stayed with their intended philosophy and goals. The father of Family 8 summarized
the use of communication with his wife as a general coping strategy in the following quote, “…
then my wife and I will also debrief. It’s kind of fleeting sometimes, just like, well alright, well
what’s going on? Where are our values here? What do we, how do we think [Daughter] is doing?”

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(F8M). Other parents talked more about how they used communication as a coping strategy, with
the father of Family 11 describing in the following excerpt that he and his wife work together to
send emails because as a couple they perceive that he words his emails in a more positive manner.
“There have been times, because my wife is, my wife has a swimming background, so she
notices those things a lot more than I do. Like I just see kids swimming back and forth,
and she actually understands the strokes and all that business. So, she will comm-,
communicate it to me and then I send emails [to coaches], you know, in the past, in the
past, like, ‘hey, how do you, how do you think [Daughter] and my son is doing in this
regard?’ You know, ‘could he, you know use a little help in this area?’ Yeah, so maybe
with like a, sort of a, an email that refers to that”.
Finally, communication within the whole family occurred when it was apparent or probable
that all family members were involved, particularly multiple children, as it is not often clear when
both parents are involved in discussions from the data collected. Again, similar to child and spouse
communication, this is all members of a family discussing an issue and coming to consensus, or at
least knowing reasons for courses of action. One father stated, “I sent an email to the head coach
just saying we would like to meet, as a family, we would like to meet with you to talk about your
team philosophy and expectations…” (F4M).
Outside of family communication. Additional to communication within the family unit,
communication with people outside of the family was also an important set of coping strategies.
The lower order themes included other swimming parent communications, coach communications,
club communications, apologizing to others, and ignoring social boundaries. Other parents were
considered to be some of the largest benefits and stressors for parents both in and out of
competitions. Therefore it is not surprising that communicating with other parents was mentioned

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by 19 of the participants as being a coping strategy. Communicating with other parents was helpful
because it allowed them to directly address issues with certain parents, discuss issues with someone
in a similar position who would therefore be understanding, get information from someone more
knowledgeable, and to build friendships. Below the mother of Family 1 and the father of Family
9 discuss how communicating with other parents was a way to vent to people who have similar
experiences, and an opportunity to learn about the sport from people who have been around longer,
respectively.
“I mean actually that’s kind of nice because they’re going through the same thing you are
(laughing) you know, I mean so that’s very helpful to talk to them about you know when
you’re driving far away or staying overnight, and you left this kid here, or they had
something else going on here, or this weekend had, we had 20 things this weekend. At a
swim meet (laughing) it’s like, so I mean it just helps to get that off your chest, kind of
thing” (F1F).
“I mean, I, for me I’ll just flat out ask them, ‘What are you talking about? I mean, I don’t
get it’ so that I can better understand it. I think I’ll be like, ‘Okay, now you were just talking
about how there was something about their streamline when they were jumping in and what
was that again? Can you, can you…’ So I mean, I may very well ask the question. I mean,
I never pretend that I know what they’re talking about if I don’t understand” (F9M).
Coach communications were also an important non-family communication coping strategy
for parents. Again, this is perhaps unsurprising considering that parents rated coaches as a stressors
and the amount of control coaches have over training, progress, and potentially happiness of their
child. As with communications with other parents, sometimes this coping strategy was about
addressing a particular issue parents had with a coach and sometimes it was about using the coach

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as an important resource for information. This was particularly important for parents when they
wanted to clarify the goals a coach had for their child or a style of coaching they were using. As
an example, when asked about advice for future parents, the mother of Family 1 suggested asking
for more help from people, including the coach. She indicated, “don’t hesitate to talk about it … I
think that’s one thing we didn’t do enough is asked for help (laughing) to be honest, so I think that
would be a key thing to tell people, help, ask for help more” (F1F). As the following excerpt shows
the father of Family 5 was particularly grateful to have a conversation with the coach after a poor
meet performance, as it helped explain the performance, and place it in the context of physical
training and tapering.
“I think looking back on, we determined, we met with the coach, post that meet, kind of
debriefed and evaluated and he took ownership, which I think was huge, for the swimmer,
that he own, that the coach took some ownership and (said) 'hey I tapered wrong, I tapered
you wrong, it was too long you were basically out of shape, were going to change things
going forward for a training perspective and the taper’” (F5M).
Limiting knowledge transfer. The final higher order theme for communication was
limiting knowledge transfer, which contained no lower order themes. Limiting knowledge transfer
was mentioned by just over a quarter of the participants and related to not sharing all the
information a parent had with someone else. By not sharing information, particularly with people
who were perceived as not having enough knowledge to understand, parents avoided the need to
have longer conversations explaining the information or justifying decisions made. Additionally,
not sharing all the information with their child was one way in which they could protect their child
from information that they were not ready to process. To illustrate, the following quote
demonstrates how one parent avoided giving friends and extended family more than the necessary

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details regarding her daughters swimming because they would not understand what they were
being told. This withholding of information perhaps puts an emphasis on why communicating with
other swimming parents was so important for coping.
“I try to stay to myself about it, or just within my husband kind of thing, you almost have
to like not offer any information … you can kind of tell that they have no understanding of
level of swimming or anything. Nothing. People just have no concept unless they are in the
swimming world, and like I said I was one of them, but even friends of mine it’s not
something you can just talk freely (laughing) about … You really have to stay within the
realm of swimming parents in that I think” (F1F).
Support general dimension. The third general dimension was support, and it contained
two higher-order themes of support internal to social networks and support external to social
networks. Support differs from communication in that this was support provided through action,
rather than via communication. For example, parents discussed sharing responsibility for logistics
and other chores with their spouse, taking the ‘divide and conquer’ approach. Parents would divide
work to be done or responsibility of a potentially stressful situation in order to meet the demands.
While this necessarily involves communication, it is the actions that are important in this general
dimension.
Support internal to social networks. As with communication, social networks, including
other swimming parents, were an important source of support for parents and formed a lower order
theme. Social networks included anyone that parents knew and used as a source of support. These
supporting took many forms, such as providing accommodation at travel meets, helping with rides
to practice, helping with childcare at meets, or helping to provide a positive atmosphere at practice
and competition. Childcare at meets was a surprising finding, but apparently very useful where

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parents had several children and was important in helping parents cope with sibling balance that
was identified as a stressor for parents.
“… if it's in an out of town pool, we're looking at spending the weekend somewhere, he
(their other child) usually will come with us, and then because then the swim families will
also have younger siblings that he can play with or we can kind of tag-team or have
swimmers that are swimming in different sessions, then he can stay behind at a hotel with
siblings, while his sister swims” (F9F).
Several parents talked about being able to stay with friends or family when travelling for
competitions and reducing stress by significantly reducing financial cost. Importantly, parents also
talked about the activity of talking to other parents while at meets as a way to fill time as reflected
in the following quote:
“I just try to talk to some of the other parents around me right up until the race and just, I
like to see how their kids are doing, I like to mark off everybody from our club, see how
they’re swimming. I mean plus it gives me something to do when you’re sitting there for
three hours for your child to swim for 2 minutes (laughing)” (F1M).
The second lower theme is parent shared responsibility, previously described as the ‘divide
and conquer’ approach for parents whereby they divided responsibilities in order to meet time and
logistical demands. For instance, many parents talked about needing to divide the family at
weekends to accommodate more than one child, as suggested by this excerpt “... [Husband] goes
to the meets, [Husband] volunteers at the meets, he loves it, he wants to do it and I am more the
one that’s sensitive about the impact to [Daughter] and [Son]… I’ll stay with [Daughter] and [Son]
(at home)” (F7F). Parents also divided up tasks in such a way that they played to the strengths of
each parent, as demonstrated by the father from Family 8: “[Wife], is in charge of our family

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finances. So she is much more acutely aware of the impact of club sports on our family’s budget,
and she carries that anxiety, umm, it really falls to her” (F8M).
Support external to social networks. The higher-order coping theme of support external to
social networks covers the subthemes seeking professional help, flexible work schedules, use of
technology, prayer and faith, and paying non-professionals for help. In this higher order theme,
support comes from outside social networks, either from people or practices that help provide
support for the parent. These were sources to which parents reached out for support, both physical
and emotional, to deal with stressors.
Many parents sought help from qualified professionals for help with specific issues like
tutors for school work, coaches for additional technique training for swimming, mental skills from
a psychological skills consultant, or physical therapists in rehabilitation from injury. Additionally,
a small number of parents talked about sometimes paying non-professionals to help (e.g., with
transportation), particularly with regard to logistics. Professional help was important for areas
where parents did not have specialist knowledge, particularly injuries or psychological skills. As
the mother of Family 11 describes, professional help is often a chain of expertise that help to solve
an issue, in this case, an injury.
My daughter, a year and a half and ago, had a shoulder injury. So, we had her, I can’t
remember if we took her to a medical doctor, we must have because we had the referral to
the PT. The PT worked with her and basically just determined the amount of yardage she
was doing, she needed more muscles to support it. Then we actually had her work with a
trainer at the gym, just a half hour a week, to not do any heavy weights, just some light
dumbbell stuff just to build the supporting muscles” (F9F).

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Work flexibility was also important for parents. Parents described having flexibility in their
work schedules such that they were able to work around practices and/or competitions. Here the
mother of Family 5 describes that exact situation.
“I have a lot of latitude just because they know, I mean I’ve been in the system for close to
25 years, almost 25 years. So I’ve made a reputation for myself as someone that works
hard gets my job done so if I choose to leave on a Friday when the swim meet is to go
watch some events I can, nobody says anything, it’s no big deal. So I’m very fortunate that
I can, that I have the job, that I can get off in that sense” (F5F).
As technology becomes more advanced and pervasive in society, parents said that they
were able to use technology in order to prevent or reduce stress. For example, parents used
technology for communication with other people, scheduling, Google Maps to find competition
locations, and specific swimming meet applications. They talked about the use of Meet Mobile, a
smartphone application that allows parents to track the progress of a swim meet and know the
times of every swimmer in a race. The functionality of this application allows parents to know
when their child is about to swim, know which lane they will be in, and track their child’s
performance ahead of results sheets being printed. The father of Family3 found this particularly
useful, “… now we use an app, meet mobile, at the meets, where they'll actually say her event and
her heat and her lane and her old time compared to her new time, so it's easy to follow like that”
(F3M).
Of the lower-order within external support, prayer and faith is perhaps one of the most
interesting. While not all families practiced a religion or mentioned this as a theme, for those that
did, faith and prayer were huge components of their personal and parent-dyad coping. Some used
prayer as a way of keeping themselves calm, and many put belief in the fact that God has a plan

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and that faith that God would see their child and themselves right in the end. This belief related to
performance in the pool, recovery from injury, and overall success. In this way, prayer and faith
were calming for parents in a similar way to perspective taking, as it allowed them to view
swimming within a greater purpose.
“…right, and it’s a path, I feel like this is her path, this is her way, and like I said, I’m very
spiritual anyway and I believe in that firmly [emphasis] and I pray about that a lot, there’s
a lot prayer in my life for what’s going on, for every aspect of the swimming thing” (F1F).
Child focused coping general dimension. As highlighted in the stressors section of the
results, one of the most important stressors for parents was their children’s emotional states. If
their child was happy, relatively stress free, and progressing as an athlete, then parents also
appeared to have less stress. Thus parents were attuned to the stress their child feels, and situations
that may cause child stress. Along those lines, the child-focused coping general dimension
contained two higher order themes of parent led coping and child led coping that parents used to
reduce the stress associated directly with their child.
Parent led coping. The parent led higher order theme was where the parent engaged in
behaviors to reduce the stress for their child and contained the lower order themes using emotional
intelligence, modelling behavior and mentoring, protecting child from sensitive information,
spending time with daughter, closing the subject, and note taking of facts important to daughter.
The most frequently cited coping strategy lower-order theme was emotional intelligence. This is
where parents read the emotional state of their child before making a decision about how to
progress with the interaction. The practice of emotional intelligence seemed to be most relevant in
the post-meet period, especially where an event had not gone as well as hoped (for child and/or
parent). Here the father of Family 3 discussed how he and his wife have learned to read their

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daughter and the level of communication she prefers after meets where performance has been
below expectations.
“There's that, those times, where we both know and even when [wife] knows that she could
have done a lot better. There's been some silent rides home definitely, where you could tell
‘oh, she doesn't want to talk about it’, but she also doesn't want to hear anything from us,
but yeah, she likes to be quiet, kind of be silent” (F3M).
Parents also cited the use of modelling of correct behaviors to their children and mentoring
as a way of reducing stress by fostering behaviors they want to see as an immediate and preventive
strategy. Here the mother of Family 9 explains the process she went through with her daughter to
explain how to keep a schedule so her daughter could start taking personal responsibility for her
own time management:
“We started off with modelling for her, this is what a schedule looks like, you need to make
a schedule for yourself, this is what it looks like and then, we equipped her with the tools
that she needed to do that, so we bought a small book, page calendar, and then I would
show her, we'd go through all of her lessons and what was due and required and write them
all down and so, the process of me doing it and showing her this is what it should look
like” (F9F).
Finally, a small number of parents talked about the lower-order theme of protecting their
child from sensitive information, which is where parents made efforts to protect their children from
potential stressors. Examples included parents withholding information from their children in
order to prevent them having to deal with complex issues, or parents behaving in a particular way
to try and balance the behaviors of the other parent. In one particular example, the mother from
Family 8 did not share the reasons for the dismissal of her daughter’s coach from the swimming

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club, but still arranged a way for her to say goodbye to her coach, “I did not go into the reasons
for the dismissal or any of that, because that’s not kid stuff and she shouldn’t have to wrestle with
that, especially when she esteemed her coach” (F8F).
Child led coping. The second higher-order theme was child-led coping strategies with the
lower-order themes following child knowledge and leadership, promoting child accountability and
responsibility, and mature child emotional responses. Here, the actions of the child are important
in stress reduction for the parents, either by allowing them to make the decisions, by their child
demonstrating appropriate self-leadership behaviors, or by holding their child accountable for
decisions made.
Following child knowledge and leadership was particularly useful for parents as it meant
they were able to involve their child in important decision making and not making decisions on
their behalf. Being able to involve the actual agent in the decision making process appeared to help
parents cope with the stress of making big decisions, and in the following quote a mother (Family
5) described her pride in the leadership role her daughters took in helping to decide whether to
move to a new swimming club or not “Yeah… the thing that I’m proud of is that my girls want to
have the conversation with the coach. I mean, we’ll have some questions too but they really have
some questions and I think that’s great” (F5F). While it is not possible to say, based on the
methodology used if this changed over time, at least one parent suggested that as her daughter aged
she no longer had to make all the decisions for her, as she was now old enough to make her own
decisions, indicating it is a coping strategy that develops over time:
“… I was trying to balance does she even know if she wants to do this, or does she think
that we want her to do this, or because she does it, she has to do this. You know, out
thinking things for a fourth grader, way differently than for a fourteen year old girl, who

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can say ‘yes I know I want to do this’. So you know it’s morphed into I know that
[Swimming Daughter] is driving this ship, that she wants to do this” (F7F).
Alongside child leadership and knowledge, parents then held their children responsible and
accountable for the decisions they made in order to reinforce desired behaviors. In doing so,
children were more likely to display positive behaviors and subsequently reduce parent stress, as
reflected in the following quote
“… let the children know too that hey, this is not to be a burden on them, but if you want
to make this commitment it’s not just your commitment but it’s our commitment too… so
we always re-evaluate before we re-start a new season… You know and then agree upon a
number of like minimum practices that they have to go to make sure that they’re you know
going to maintain their skill level, and then also make it worth the financial commitment”
(F3F).
Parent actions general dimension. The fifth general dimension was parent actions, and it
represents active coping strategies characterized by deliberate action in order to reduce stress.
There were two higher-order themes within this general dimension: actions that could apply across
contexts and actions that apply directly to swimming. Those that are directly related to swimming
are parent actions that were specific to the sport of swimming (e.g., changing swimming clubs,
coaches, or squads). Whereas parent actions that apply across contexts are those actions that are
carried out to relieve stressors from the sport of swimming, but could be utilized in a number of
contexts.
Actions that could apply across contexts. The higher-order theme of across context actions
contained the lower-order themes being opportunistic, distraction techniques, researching,
physical activity, and logical problem solving. As the results demonstrate, each coping strategy

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was utilized in an effort to reduce stressors brought around by swimming. However, these actions
also apply to other stressor contexts.
The lower order theme of being opportunistic describes how parents would make the most
of small opportunities to take part in non-regularly-scheduled activities that would reduce certain
stressors. Many of the examples related to parents taking opportunities during (expected or
unexpected) breaks in the swimming schedule to take part in non-swimming related social events,
or spend time with their partner. As the father from Family 3 suggested, he rarely got time when
there was no swimming and so he made the most of the break in swimming season by taking a trip
to see friends.
“I have the first free weekend in a long time, so I'm taking the Amtrak to [Midwestern City]
on Friday to Sunday, and my best friend from [another Midwestern State] is driving there.
So you do get little spurts here and there, and where we do like to take advantage of it. And
she'll go off, she'll go on girls trips, [wife] will, you know if we get breaks but, we know
year round and mostly evenings we're tied up with swimming” (F3M).
Distraction techniques is where parents had learned to engage in activities that would
distract them from the present moment. In distracting themselves, parents were less likely to be
anxious about a particular situation. This most often manifested during swimming competitions,
where parents would distract themselves while their child was competing, or to avoid
conversations with other parents, in order to manage arousal levels. Some of most frequently
mentioned distraction techniques were taping races and bringing work to meets. The father of
Family 11 describes his approach to controlling some of his nervousness at meets in the excerpt
below.

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“I wouldn’t say I get overly nervous, so I don’t find that I need a really big coping
mechanism. I do probably a little bit, because of boredom and a little, maybe a little bit
just to help with that nervousness, of trying to always bring something to read. So, between
events, you know, or whatever I’ll read a book, that kind of makes the time go by a little
bit” (F11M).
As another example, researching was where parents actively engaged in information
seeking behaviors to find out more about a stressor and/or solution to a stressor. The most common
example was families who already had or were currently thinking about moving coaches, squads,
or clubs and conducting research on potential options, as reflected in the following passage.
“… so I found a couple teams and so before we moved or before we joined the team, we
actually got in touch with the coaches and asked if we could come watch the teams practice,
and so that’s what we did. We watched the team practice for a little bit and talked with the
coach, what’s their coaching style, gave them her age and times of her last events or her
best events and asked, what level according to this information would she be?” (F3F).
Actions that apply directly to swimming. The higher-order coping strategy theme of
actions that apply directly to swimming included the lower-order themes involvement and
volunteering, learning the sport and gaining experience, change clubs/coaches/squads, coach other
coaches, and being comfortable at meets. These actions are specific to the sport of swimming, but
are none-the-less important actions for parents to engage in for coping.
Involvement and volunteering were important components in the learning process for
parents, but also allowed them to feel that they had an active role in the development of their
children. Of course, volunteering had the additional benefit of getting them out of static observer
roles in the stands, which could also be a stressor for parents. Although it only occurred for a few

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parents in specific clubs, some clubs rewarded volunteer time with reductions in monthly
swimming fees, and this had the potential to reduce some financial stress for parents, considering
they would be at meets anyway. Volunteering was also a regular recommendation from the parents
interviewed, as it provided all the benefits mentioned, and, as reflected here by the mother of
Family 9 it allowed her to learn about the sport of swimming, too.
“… be involved, it's a lot of fun, you will get to meet a lot of the swimmers from different
clubs and recognize them and are able to relate with them when you're down there on deck,
and that's really cool, to hear swimming from their perspective” (F9F).
Parents also discussed that learning the sport and gaining experience as an important coping
strategy. More specifically, learning the sport helped to remove unknowns and enabled parents to
hold knowledgeable discussions with their child. This was seen as particularly beneficial as it
allowed parents to enjoy the sport more often, negotiate their role within the culture of the sport,
and reduced the amount of deliberate energy they had to put into attending meets – they could now
be on ‘auto-pilot’, “… right now we’re kind of on auto-pilot, it’s like okay, we got this, we know
how this thing works” (F8F). When parents didn’t know the sport they had to spend a larger amount
of their time trying to understand what was going on, and less time enjoying the meet or observing
their child. The father of Family 8 discussed how it took him a while to learn that he didn’t have
to engage in the same behaviors as all the other parents at meets, he could approach it in his own
way, and in doing so enjoyed meets more.
“… I used to do this thing where like all the other parents, not all the other parents, but you
know, I used to get the heat sheets and everything, and I was writing down all the times
and I was studying the heat sheets and everything, and I was watching a lot of races that
my daughter wasn’t in because I thought I should be or something. And then when I figured

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out, ‘oh, I can just grade papers, and I can look up when she’s racing or when one of her
teammates is racing, then I can go back to grading papers’. Like as soon as I figured that
out, my life got a lot better” (F8M).
Finally, changing swimming clubs, coaches or squads is one of the best examples of parent
actions that apply directly to swimming. This lower-order theme represented an action taken by
parents, with or without research in decision making process, to enhance the swimming experience
of their child. Sometimes this occurred as a result of coach/club stressors or performance concerns,
at other times it was forced upon parents as a result of a club closure, and at least one parent-dyad
talked about moving because they wanted a club that was closer to their own personal values. Here,
the father from Family 7 describes why potential future performance of a team and its training
location factored into why his family chose to switch teams. Specifically, he stated that.
“… once the transition happened a lot of the coaches on the former team left, and we felt
better about the potential success of the new team compared to the old team. The old team still
exist, but we kind of felt that it might not even make it through the transition. So we had a
combination of futuristic success of the team and future location I would say” (F7M).
Planning and organization general dimension. The sixth general coping dimension is
planning and organization, and refers to parent attempts to organize themselves and their families
in order to maximize resources and reduce stress. The higher-order themes within this dimension
included, making short- and long-term plans to be organized, management of family members,
developing routine, and finding a way to make things happen.
Planning as a higher order theme was relatively simple, and refers to parents being
organized through making plans to manage time or resources. In doing so, parents reduced or
managed the stressors of time management and logistics. The following quote from the father of

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Family 7 shows how his family and the parents of other families in his social network used
planning and car-pooling to reduce logistical stress. Additionally the quote demonstrates how
multiple coping strategies were often used, discussing here use of technology, spousal
communication, and support from social network.
“The other thing is making a schedule about who’s driving when, so even when it does fall
on the just the two of us. You know, I have a little iPhone schedule, and we, we put in there
who is driving which time so that we I mean it’s the way we use to communicate that with
our car pool. We have had different parents who co-ordinate that car pool and written, you
know sent out a weekly e-mail with the schedule for that week about who is driving when.
So in one sense if you are doing the schedule it can add to the stress. But having the car
pool decreases the stress greatly I would say” (F7M).
Management of family members coping strategies referred to the demographics of a family
(e.g., number and age of children) and the ways in which parents managed the family members in
order to reduce stress. In the following quote, the mother of Family 5 talked about one way in
which she and her husband have coped with logistic stress (as well as intending other benefits)
was to have the father (a teacher) move to each of the schools his children were at so his schedule
was similar to theirs
“Well my [Husband] for one has had the better brunt over the years. My job doesn’t allow
me to, to car pool them from practice. Um and so he has, part of the commitment for us,
this is before they even started swimming but just so that he was available, um that he went
to the same school they went to for elementary, middle, and high school” (F5F).
Some parents talked about how having one child that was older and could drive
significantly helped the logistical stressors of swimming, as they essentially had three potential

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adults that could drive. The father from Family 5 discussed how he was able to change his schedule
and gym membership because an older sibling was doing the driving
“… when my daughter drove August of last year she'll be driving a year coming up,
y’know, going forward, and I have another daughter in college, and we have a car, a third
car, it was like okay, I don’t have to worry about it. In fact I changed my gym membership
because I didn't have to go to the YMCA at 5 in the morning, ‘cause she’s driving herself”
(F5M).
Finally, the routine lower-order theme is where parents talked about having developed a
routine over a period of time that assisted with time management and logistical stressors by
everyone knowing what had to be done and when. Sometimes this was overtly discussed as routine
by participants, and on others it was obvious in analysis that parents had developed routines that
aided logistical stressors. This routine made it easier, as it required less day-to-day and week-toweek planning, but came with similar benefits. Importantly, routines were not just about
individuals, but about parent-dyad or whole family routines. As demonstrated by the following
quote, the mother from Family 3 suggested that having the family get into a rhythm during the
season that reduces the amount of planning needed
“Well now we’re in a rhythm or have a schedule, so we know what days you know who’s
going where and doing what. And so one of us actually is a stay at home parent so we’re
able to help coordinate and, you know, get them where they need to be and then prep food
most of the time” (F3F).
Passive coping general dimension. Passive coping was the seventh general dimension of
coping discussed by parents. This dimension contained coping efforts that involves parents taking
no direct action or involving deliberate inaction. Higher order themes within this dimension

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included: disengagement, avoidance, frustration and anger, deliberate lack of knowledge,
inoculation, compromise, acceptance, denial, guilt, and hope.
Disengagement was the highest reported passive coping strategy, and it represents
situations when parents deliberately disengaged from a stressor. For example, parents talked about
leaving swim meets to alleviate boredom, removing themselves from conversations or positions
of authority within organizations, or even from work stress. A deliberate decision is made to leave
the current stressor and engage in another activity in order to reduce stress, or in this case, also
boredom. The father of Family 3 described how he would often get frustrated at meets when his
daughter did not perform to the level he knew she could, and this often led to a little tension
between he and his wife, so he would disengage by taking a break, “… sometimes I'll just take a
break outside, leave the bleachers for a little while, because we tend to butt heads a lot because
we're two different people, her mum and I. Kind of totally opposite, but [sigh], I just know her
potential, you know, I do, I just know her potential” (F3M).
Avoidance was a very similar coping strategy to disengagement, but is different in that
parents avoided becoming involved in an activity they knew would be stressful. With
disengagement, parents had to be doing an activity (not always be choice) before deciding to
withdraw. The father of Family 8 describes how he avoids getting involved in discussions with
other parents at meets, because he did not enjoy them.
“… in general I find that being around other parents on teams a stressful experience. One,
I don’t really like to talk that much at meets, I don’t like to converse. I get bored with talk
about swimming, and who’s coaching where, and who’s doing what, and all that business;
I don’t find that particularly interesting … What I do now is I take my little folding chair,

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I put it on the back wall of the natatorium, I turn on my computer … And just like, that
totally gets me off the hook of having to sit with other parents at meets” (F8M).
Perhaps one of the most interesting coping strategies found in the study is lack of
knowledge. This also could be called ‘ignorance is bliss’, and is where a parent would deliberately
not learn about the sport or specifics of their child’s involvement to avoid gaining additional
stressors. This quote from the mother of Family 1 shows that she already has a number of stressors,
she did not want to deal with any additional ones.
“I don’t know that part of it, I almost feel like I want to ignore, you know what I mean? I
don’t want to wrap my brain around some of it. Like the practicing, what they do in practice
and stuff when she tries to tell me it, she just kinda looks at me and goes ughh really? Cause
I just am like, ok I’m just, that’s a part I don’t even, I don’t care about, I don’t want know.
Kind of thing sometimes you just kind of back away and go, ok I’m dealing with enough,
I don’t need to deal with that (laughing)” (F1F).
Psychological skills general dimension. The eighth coping strategies general dimension
was psychological skills and refers to parent use of psychological skills in order to reduce stress.
There are only higher-order themes in this dimension, including: positive thinking, self-talk,
mindfulness, goal-setting, self-control, ‘right now’ thinking, and having awareness of potential
injuries. Importantly, while 17 of the parents mentioned using what have been termed
psychological skills, the number that practiced each skill is relatively low, indicating that use of
psychological skills is highly idiosyncratic or something they think only they do.
The most often reported psychological skill was positive thinking, including reframing
negative thoughts. As has been discussed repeatedly, parents make efforts to reduce the stress of
their children in order to reduce their own stress. Here, parents used positive thinking as a way of

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motivating or reducing the stress of their child, often via communicating with them about how to
put their performances into greater context. Positive thinking was occasionally used as a way to
reduce personal stress as well. The father from Family 5 provided a good example of providing
context for performance in the following statement:
“…and that’s what I've been very good about, my daughter [Swimming Daughter] just
came back from Florida trip... and I’m the biggest cheer leader you'll find and I'm going
‘hey that was a great swim. I know it wasn’t your best time, but you beat your (time) from
last month’ or ‘you beat your time’, ‘you’re making really good progress’...” (F5M).
Short-term strategies general dimension. The final coping strategy general dimension
was labeled short-term coping strategies. As with psychological skills, there are only higher-order
themes, including: humor, emotional responses, spending on credit card, lack of sleep, and alcohol.
These short-term strategies were defined by coping strategies that only had short term benefits,
and some could potentially be described as being maladaptive. An interesting aspect of this general
dimension is just how few parents reported using short-term strategies (five), which is perhaps a
reflection of social desirability or that parents are engaging effective coping attempts that prevent
the need to turn to short term strategies. As an example, the mother of Family 4 discussed how she
uses humor as a way to defuse difficult post-meet car rides with her daughter.
“… I'm a laugher so if I'm in the car I try to turn it around and make her laugh and usually
we can find something funny in the whole situation. I tend, I’m kind of that silly person,
and we usually can end up turn it around, it might take twenty minutes but we can usually
get it turned around” (F4M).
Links between stressors and coping strategies. Parent use of coping strategies was highly
idiosyncratic, as demonstrated by the fact that not all parents reported using all the coping

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strategies elicited in the study. Additionally, not all parents used identical coping strategies for
each individual stressor. For example, some parents used passive coping attempts such as
disengagement during swim meets to cope with the competitive stressor of watching swim meets,
where other parents sought support from their social networks for the same stressor. Additionally,
parents discussed that multiple stressors could be occurring at any one time, and that they used
multiple coping strategies for each stressor they experienced. Therefore, because of the
idiosyncratic nature of stressors and coping strategy usage, alongside multiply occurring stressors
and coping strategies, it was difficult to draw links between individual stressors and coping
strategies.
Also, it became apparent that just linking stressors and coping strategies may be too
simplistic. The benefits discussed by parents also may be included in the stress-coping process.
More specifically, developing an active philosophy for involvement was a coping strategy used by
parents. In order for this coping strategy to work, parents must have perceived some benefits to
involvement that are more worthwhile than the current stressor experienced. Therefore, adding
benefits into the process would be ideal, however, as parents were not asked to suggest links
between benefits, and stressors and coping strategies it is not possible to draw those links under
the current methodology.
Stressors and coping strategies. Broad links between some stressors and coping strategies
themes were established. Some coping general dimensions map quite well on to some or all general
dimensions of stressors. First, communication, while not displayed in the results as being a
superordinate (category containing all other themes) coping theme, it was an important coping
strategy in and of itself, as well as a component of many others. It also was discussed as being
employed for almost all stressors, including the majority of organizational, competitive,

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developmental, and general stressors. The few stressors for which it was not mentioned, e.g., child
other skill development under developmental stressors, it is likely that communication was used
in some way but not reported. Secondly, the general dimension of justification for swimming
involvement also was used by parents for most of the stressors across all stressor general
dimensions. Finally, the general dimension coping theme of planning and organization links
directly to the planning and organization higher-order stressor theme. Logistical planning and
organization is a stressor that requires a certain set of skills to deal with the associated challenge,
such as making plans, managing family members, and developing routines. It is thought that the
communication and justification for swimming involvement general dimensions were particularly
useful across all stressors because (1) they applied across all contexts, allowing parents to
potentially use the same coping strategy for a number of concurrent stressors; and (2) they provided
both problem- and emotion-focused coping strategies allowing parents to match the coping
strategy to the stressor as per the goodness of fit hypotheses (Folkman & Moskowitz, 2004).
Additionally, some higher-order or lower-order coping strategies were directly applicable
to certain stressors reported by parents as they assisted with a highly specific stressor. The coping
strategies of trusting coaches’ knowledge, coach communications, and club communications had
direct links to coach, club, and child athletic development stressors. Here the stressors are very
context-specific to either a person, an organization, or the development of a child-athlete.
Therefore coping strategies were developed that also were context specific. Another example is
parents setting expectation limitations is directly applicable to child expectations and outcomes as
a way of helping their child hold realistic expectations for meets, thus reducing the likelihood of
severe disappointment and subsequent parent stress. Other examples include learning the sport and
gaining experience being linked to a lack of knowledge, seeking professional help and injuries,

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and flexible work schedules and planning and organization stressors. In sum, parents developed
specific coping strategies for context-specific stressors.
These suggested links between stressors and coping strategies suggest that parents may
employ general (e.g., perspective taking) and specific (e.g., trusting coaches) coping strategies for
their stressors. These general and specific coping strategies may be employed separately or
concurrently depending on the stressor, but again, the current methodology makes it difficult to
establish the exact nature of these relationships. The remainder of the coping strategies were not
linked with specific stressors regularly enough for definitive relationships to be concluded. Indeed,
the results presented above concerning links between stressors and coping strategies must be
interpreted with caution too, as the links suggested are not used by all parents all of the time. As
suggested at the beginning of this section, coping strategies are used for different reasons and at
different times for each parent, indicating highly idiosyncratic use of coping strategies, which is
support by prior literature (Gould et al. 1993; Hardy et al. 1996).
Conclusions. Parents reported many benefits to swimming involvement, stressors due to
swimming involvement, and coping strategies employed to deal with stressors. Benefits included
benefits to the parents themselves, their families, and their children. Additionally, the sport of
swimming has some specific benefits for parents that may not be present with other sports. The
stressors parents perceived as being due to swimming involvement included organizational
stressors, (e.g., planning and organization, and time), competitive stressors, (e.g., expectations and
outcomes for meets or watching meets), developmental stressors, (e.g., child well-being), or
general stressors, (e.g., child technology use). Finally, parents employed a number of different
coping strategies for the stressors caused by youth swimming involvement, including justification

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for swimming involvement, communication, support, child-focused coping, parent actions,
planning and organization, passive coping, psychological skills, and short-term strategies.
No one stressor or coping strategy occurs in isolation, and parents use multiple coping
strategies to cope with each stressor. Links between benefits, stressors, and coping strategies are
difficult to determine as each are multiple and concurrently occurring. However, some broad and
more specific links have been drawn between a small number of stressors and coping strategies.
Links between benefits, and stressors and coping strategies should be investigated going forward
as interviews suggested that perceived benefits may be part of the appraisal of stressors and
subsequent coping. Finally, it appears that parents may use general and specific coping strategies
to cope with stressors. How and when parents use general coping strategies, specific coping
strategies, or general and specific coping strategies concurrently requires further investigation.
Case study Analyses
The nomothetic analyses allow us to view how themes aggregate across a larger sample.
However, as previously stated, quantification of qualitative data using hierarchical thematic
analysis can sometimes misrepresent themes as being more important qualitatively than they
actually are. This data analytic approach also has the downside of sorting themes into very distinct
categories, where sometimes there is overlap between categories, or relationships that exist
between them. In order to address some of these shortcomings and to understand the individual
differences between parent-dyads, to examine how stressors and coping strategies occur
simultaneously, and to look more at the narrative experience of the stressor and coping strategies,
case study profiles were developed. It is beyond the scope of this results section to present all
parent dyads in detail. Therefore summary experiences of four couples will be given.

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It is remarkable, considering the differences in family demographics, physical location,
swimmers skill levels, and clubs-affiliated that there is such similarity in the benefits, stressors,
and coping strategies of these families. However, how they experience the benefits, stressors and
coping strategies can be quite different, and thus each family has its own unique narrative. Table
2 details the demographics of each family, and the narrative that the lead investigator considers as
being unique to the family.
How parent-dyads used coping strategies can be divided into two categories. All parentdyads developed roles for each parent in the dyad to best cope with the stressors faced. For
example, a dyad may have one parent that took care of getting the children to and from practice,
and the other would be responsible for preparing food for when the rest of the family returned
(logistical stressors). From here dyads either, communicated and shared responsibility for all
stressors, or they focused only on their own responsibilities and left their partner to focus on theirs.
This was determined by the fact that some dyads more common stressors and rated stress lower
across all stressors. Other dyads had fewer common stressors with more variance in stress ratings.
Both types of spreading responsibility and coping appeared to be effective.
The four parent-dyads chosen for the results are from Families 4, 7, 9, and 10 and
represented both important narratives and examples of both types of dyad coping. Families 4 and
9 have been chosen as they represented families coming toward the end and close to the beginning
of the “incredible journey” (F4F) that is swimming involvement. Family 7 was an interesting case
study to include because it featured one parent that bought much less into the nature of competitive
sport and thus had some different goals for involvement. Finally, Family 10 represented a unique
parent involvement as the father is a current swimming coach for the club in which his daughters
participate.

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Family 9 – the beginning. Family nine was comprised of a mother and father and two
children, one daughter and one son. The mother is a 43 year old teacher who has no prior sporting
history, and the father is a 43 year old credit manager with a sporting history in high school
baseball, and currently participates in recreational ice hockey and softball. The daughter, 13, is the
swimmer in the family, having been involved in swimming for approximately five and a half years.
She currently also participates in cross-country and waterpolo. Additional to sport, the daughter
also participates in church youth group. The son, 11, is not a swimmer, but currently participates
in soccer, baseball, and running for travel club teams. Due to the fact the daughter is aged 13, she
is closer to the beginning of the specialization stage of athletic talent development. Together with
her younger brother, this family is closer to the beginning of high level involvement in the sport.
The advent of swimming. The overall goal of the parents had been to introduce their
daughter to extracurricular activities in order to help her become less introverted. It was thought
that sport would be a good way for her to meet new people and subsequently branch out on her
own. The parents facilitated their daughter’s involvement in a number of activities, including nonsports (Sunday school, Scouts, t-ball, basketball, tennis, and gymnastics), before they found
swimming. The mother actually got the idea from a student at the Sunday school for which she
volunteered. A child at Sunday school caught the mother’s eye because she had numbers written
on her hands. The mother found out that the numbers were from a swim meet, and enquired more
about the sport from the student. This led to the decision to encourage their daughter to try
swimming. Her daughter enjoyed swimming, as it allowed her to be by herself in the water,
perform for herself without the attention and pressure of a team performance or letting others
down, while still having team mates. Her interest and performance grew to the point where the

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parents felt the need to find better coaching, and so they eventually transferred to a USA swimming
affiliated club.
The parent dyad.
Benefits. The mother and father both discussed a number of benefits for their daughter’s
involvement, falling into parent, child, and swimming categories. Personally, both the mother and
the father discussed the friendships and social circles they have developed, with the mother
describing friendships as ‘strong’, and the father being grateful for the opportunity swimming has
given him to meet new people. Additionally, the father spoke to how much he enjoyed watching
his daughter swim, having fun, and being successful in meeting the goals she set for herself. With
regard to benefits to their daughter, the mother described the biggest benefit was the ‘wonderful’
friendships she has developed, along with perceived emotional development. This development
has allowed her daughter to overcome her shyness and be less introverted, with the mother
describing her as emotionally stable as a 13 year old can be. The father’s belief that his daughter
was having fun was important to him, also.
Stressors and coping strategies. Both parents have their own personal stressors, but many
of those mentioned were shared between the two, including: logistics, sibling balance, time with
family and each other. First, both parents talked about the difficulties they have in getting their
daughter to practices. Logistics are particularly difficult given that both parents work, and that the
schedule changes from semester to semester and during the summer, making it difficult to establish
a long-term routine. Both parents are quick to say that this challenge was much higher when their
son was also playing ice hockey, and this reduction in commitments has made logistics more
manageable. In conjunction with logistics, the time commitment required by swimming and
getting their son and daughter around means that neither the family unit, nor they as a couple, get

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to spend as much time together as they would like. This was especially true when their son was
playing hockey. The father in particular suggested that any free time from swimming during the
semester must then be spent on getting homework finished, thus reducing family time further.
The parent-dyad used a number of coping strategies to combat the logistical challenge, and
the time commitment of swimming. The first was planning and organization by the mother. Her
role in the logistical challenge was to be the one doing all the driving, and as the driver she was
responsible for the planning. Not only did she make a weekly schedule for the whole family, which
was posted on the wall so everyone knows what they need to do each day, but she kept a long-term
diary that contained the dates of upcoming meets and miscellaneous items that prevented the
family from over-committing to any one weekend. Interestingly, the father perceived this planning
as more week to week, rather than comprehensive long-term planning. The father helped the
mother execute this plan as effectively as possible, and while during the week he did less driving
than the mother, he helped more extensively for meets. Previously he and his wife took separate
roles for each of their children, dad to hockey with their son and the mother with their daughter to
swimming. Additionally they sought help from a parent car-pool if they were both tied up at work,
and the father talked about trying to develop routines as a way of making sure homework is done
on school nights. This routine also helped with a school-pool balance stressor discussed below.
The father talked about making a priority out of spending time together, the father suggesting that
their children now being old enough to be at home alone for short periods of time has made it
easier for them to take opportunistic ‘date nights’ for food. The mother was very focused on
planning as a coping strategy and remarked on how excellent communication from their swimming
club about dates and locations for swim meets allowed them to plan more effectively as a family.
For instance, if the family would be split at two different sporting events on the same weekend

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(e.g., son playing hockey and daughter at swimming), the advanced notice from the swimming
club allowed them to plan where they could stay together as a family, and potentially meet up
during the day to see some of each child compete. Finally, the father suggested that understanding
what roles each parent played and being accommodating of that is important.
The pool-school balance was a particular stressor for the mother, given the fact that so
much time outside of swimming had to be spent on school work. She wanted her daughter to do
well in school but also have successful swimming involvement. However, sometimes the demands
between the two were difficult. As an example, the mother talked about the difficult transition
between elementary and middle school the previous year. This was thought to be particularly
challenging because of other changes associated with the transition, along with a lack of personal
organization and adolescence in general
“… it was tough, and there were a lot of, new experiences happening all at the same time
where as she was moving buildings from elementary school to middle school, she was also
moving districts as well, so she was not in the same, city of school where she went to
elementary school as, as when she was joining middle school, she had a whole new set of
friends and rules and teachers and um, and then being, being a teenager and having those
y'know teenage stresses of socially fitting in and um, emotional and then um, y'know
adding on longer practices and then homework and um, y'know and, and un-unlike me she's
not very organized [laughs]” (F9F).
The mother did not think they had a perfected coping strategy for the school-pool balance.
Instead she felt that it was a work in progress because the stressors were always changing. That
said, she and her husband have been trying to help their daughter to develop organizational skills
and responsibility, alongside a ‘school comes first’ attitude. Importantly, the mother felt just telling

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a child to be organized without demonstrating and modeling the behavior is not effective, so she
invested in a schedule book, helped her fill it out for a short period of time before letting her
daughter start making her own schedule. In doing so, the mother allowed her daughter to fail on a
few deadlines to learn the consequences of her actions. This ‘failure’ was difficult for the mother
to do, especially in deciding the activities in which she could let her daughter experience
consequences.
Spending so much time driving their daughter around for practices and meets also left the
parents with some challenges regarding balancing the two siblings. The younger brother previously
played hockey, but currently is not interested in participating in sport. Thus, during meets they
have a conundrum as to what to do with the son. Do they have him stay with his grandparents,
arrange play dates, or have him sit in the stands? They want to ensure their son does not feel that
everything is about the daughter and about swimming. The mother articulates this concern more
completely, and suggests that his lack of interest in swimming may stem from being bored sitting
in the bleachers watching meets.
Coping with this stressor is less well defined, as it became about finding a place for him to
be that is not the pool that also does not seem like they are leaving him somewhere, usually his
friends or grandparents. The father in particular, has been trying to get his son interested in other
winter sports. Hockey was born out of this, and the fact that dad played hockey in his youth, but
his interest in the sport faded rather quickly, and he prefers non-competitive environments. Again,
this is an imperfect coping strategy that will continue to develop as their son’s interests develop.
The father talked more than the mother about competitive stressors, particularly watching
races. He is unable to sit to watch races and needs to stand because of the anxiety he feels watching
his child swim, anxiety because he wanted his daughter to perform up to her own expectations.

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Meanwhile, the father reported that the mother preferred to sit and yell support during races, and
that his inability to sit and watch races with her was initially a source of low-level disagreement
between the two. Over a period of time the fathers’ behaviors have become normalized and are no
longer a source of disagreement.
Clearly then, the father liked to be somewhere that he can stand or move about, as a
physical way of dissipating the anxiety he feels when his daughter swims. However, he talked
about perceiving this as a positive stress rather than a negative one, an excitement to watch his
daughter achieve her potential. Thus positive thinking and reframing are potential mechanisms
that help the father cope.
Conclusions. Overall it appears that this parent-dyad had good ways of coping with the
stressors they faced because of their daughter’s involvement in swimming. While different
stressors were mentioned between the parents (see Table 6.), many of the stressors, particularly
those with higher ratings, were similar between the two. This perhaps shows a level of
communication between the two that they perceive similar things as being stressful. They also had
clearly defined roles within the dyad; mom takes care of planning and logistics most days of the
week, and dad helps out some nights and for meets. When their son was in hockey there was a
clear divide that dad took care of the son and mom took care of the daughter. Both of these parents
also mentioned not having all the answers for how to cope with all the challenges they face, and
perhaps this comfort with not having the perfect answer is also an important coping strategy. It is
also appropriate to suggest that both parents being flexible makes this easier than if one or other
parent needed a more comprehensive coping strategy for everything. The parents made
recommendations for other parents in Table 6 below.

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Table 6. Family 9 recommendations for other parents
The Mother
Be involved in the swimming experience. It is
a fun experience and you will develop your
own friendships and social networks.
Take the time to learn the sport and form a
good relationship with your child’s coach.
Enjoy it, because you will be busy!

The Father
You need to come up with a good system for
making the logistics work. Be prepared for
the practice schedules because they will
influence daily life.
Don’t forget about the other child, don’t let it
consume all family time.
Support your spouse as much as possible and
be prepared for unexpected challenges.

Family 4 – the end?
The family and the advent of swimming. The family consists of two parents and two
daughters. The parents are a mother, 48, who is a kindergarten teacher, and a father, 47, who is a
business development manager. Both are previous college athletes, with the mother competing in
field hockey and lacrosse, and the father in swimming. The father also currently competes in
triathlons at the recreational level and was previously involved in baseball, cross-country, tennis,
and track at high school. The eldest daughter is 20 years of age, and while she was a swimmer at
the high school level, her focus was soccer, at which she competed nine years in both travel club
and high school. The younger daughter, 17, is the swimmer in the family, having been involved
for approximately 10 years. She also was previously involved in dance and soccer at the
recreational level.
The parents wanted their daughters to learn water safety, so the parents enrolled them into
summer swim leagues from a young age. The summer league not only served as a way for their
daughters to improve swimming skills, but due to the community involvement in the summer
league, to make friends. The mother then described how much the family enjoyed this activity, in
particular, her youngest daughter enjoyed swimming, which resulted in them making the transition
to club swimming. Both the mother and father talk about swimming as now being a family activity

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and having a pretty highly developed family identity for swimming. Importantly, their youngest
daughter has intentions of swimming in college with recruiting trips planned for the coming fall.
Both parents realize that this may be their final season in which they would be involved in their
daughter’s swimming from a hands-on role perspective.
The parent dyad.
Benefits. The mother and father in Family 4 spoke of a number of benefits to being enrolled
in swimming. Both parents were volunteers for their daughter’s club at one time. The father in
particular felt this was a benefit, as it provided a way for him to get involved and not spend hours
in the bleachers. Swimming is a huge part of the family identity, and the mother talked about it
being an ‘incredible journey’ – one they realized may be over soon. For example, a long-term
involvement in swimming provided the elder daughter with a detailed knowledge of swimming
training and technique, which has subsequently afforded her opportunities for coaching swimming.
Additionally, the youngest daughter has been recruited by colleges that as a family they otherwise,
may not have been able to send her to. Both mother and father talk about the enjoyment they get
from seeing their daughter succeed and develop, with the father placing emphasis on life-skills
such as time management, discipline, commitment, focus, determination, and competitive edge.
The mother focused on the confidence and the self-reliance that swimming has brought for her
daughter. Importantly, the mother also felt that swimming allowed her husband to become more
involved with the family than he otherwise might have been due to the large amount of travel
associated with his job.
Stressors and coping strategies. Logistics, again, was a big stressor for this family,
particularly the mother, who felt it was ‘like a full-time job’ to get her daughter from point A to
point B. When the mother went back into employment, she worked very hard on finding a way to

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get her daughter to practice, including have a friend drop her daughter at a drive-through from
which another friend picked her up and took her to practice. Naturally this generated some worries
for the mother regarding the safety of her daughter, too. The father also mentioned that the time
commitment required for swimming was so large because when your child commits so much to
the sport, you have to commit an equal amount as a parent. He also discussed the pressure of the
multiple roles parents are required to play, including the examples of masseuse, psychologist, and
transport manager. Again, as with Family 9, the father had concerns about making sure they
balance the time between their two daughters’, especially when the elder one is home from college.
The way these two parents cope with the logistical challenge was to go for Sunday
afternoon walks along local trails to talk in order to plan for the coming week, as well as regular
communication via e-mail and text. This Sunday ritual encompasses communication between
spouses, but also physical activity. Both talked about how much easier life was when the elder
daughter lived at home and had passed her driving test, as that increased the number of responsible
adults that could help with logistics, and then again when their younger daughter could also drive.
Additionally, in order to ensure their daughter got to practice, they paid for help from other
swimmers / school students to drop their daughter off at the right places (e.g., drive-through).
Both parents talked of the difficulty in watching their daughter struggle with balancing
school and swimming. The mother described how there would often be tears at the amount of work
that needed to be done and influence it had on sleeping patterns. Despite this, the pay-off is
obviously large, with potential college recruitment and being a high-school and USA Swimming
academic All-American. The mother talked about becoming desensitized to these emotions over
time and accepting that they are part and parcel of the road her daughter decided to pursue. Both

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parents try help their daughter as much as possible, either by packing lunches and swim bags, or
by talking to her about how to cope and the silver linings of working so hard.
The daughter was being actively recruited to colleges for swimming, and the father had
taken a highly active role in this process. He helped his daughter by drafting e-mails to coaches,
which she then reads and edits before sending. However, both mother and father talk about
stressors they have regarding the recruitment. The father finds the process of recruitment stressful
because of the work that it adds and the mixed level of knowledge out there from which to get
advice. However, the mother is more concerned about how far away the daughter will be from
home. The father, because of his active role in the recruitment process then is much more
concerned about how recruiting works and wanting his daughter to have choices. The mother, with
her more peripheral role, is concerned with the outcome and her lack of control over it, although
this would be considered a normative stressor in family research (Boss, 1980).
Going back to the roles each parent plays in the recruiting process, also defines how they
cope. The mother copes by enjoying her daughter’s company while she still has the opportunity.
She also mentioned drinking wine as a joke, but the potential for maladaptive coping may exist,
especially when so much of the family and thus parent identity is wrapped up in swimming. The
father, of course, coped by trying to help his daughter with the process as much as possible, by
learning, advising, and letting his daughter make the difficult decisions regarding which coaches
whom to reply and which schools to choose.
Both parents also mentioned swim meets as stressors, but again for different reasons. The
mother dislikes meets because of the other parents asking questions and nagging for information,
while the father felt a more acute anxiety regarding his daughters’ performances, particularly when
he knows that if she does not meet her own expectations there will be a strong negative reaction.

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Again, coping strategies match the stressor, with the mother engaging in distraction techniques
like reading, or not attending at all and getting updates from her husband, a tactic she believes
helps her play a less intense parent role to balance out the focus of the father. Dad on the other
hand copes by saying a few prayers, being proud regardless of the outcome, and trying to keep in
perspective that no-one can improve 100% of the time. It was also helpful that her new coach (see
below) took some responsibility for the poor performance due to an inappropriate taper. Clearly
though, both parents believed confidence to have been undermined, as they had their daughter
work with a mental skills coach to work on confidence and build a positive relationship with her
new coach.
Finally, the daughter moved swimming clubs and therefore coaches after an unsuccessful
meet one year. The father described his daughter having reached her potential with her old coach
and needing something new, whereas the mother also talked about how the relationship with her
old coach had deteriorated and was undermining her confidence. The mother was therefore worried
about her daughter developing confidence with her new coach, while the father had concerns
regarding the unknowns of moving; were they making the right decisions? The dad, along with the
daughter researched new clubs and coaches, and he let his daughter drive the decision making
process. This shared responsibility between him and his daughter, plus the extensive research acted
as coping strategies for the father.
Conclusions. While there was overlap in the stressors felt by each parent, there was less
overlap between stressors in this couple than there was in the previous example of Family 9 when
it comes to the stressors that are most acutely felt. Whether these parents were more articulate
about how a stressor was challenging for them or the division of roles between the parents was
more obvious; each also experienced stress differently for the same stressor. However, this does

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not indicate that they are any less successful in coping attempts, but it perhaps points more to the
fact that each parent had a more defined role where they are concerned solely with certain things
such as college recruitment or meet behaviors. As with Family 9, each parent had specific roles in
this family. The father was much more hands on with the process of swimming, while the mother
took care of logistics. The mother was deliberately less pushy with regard to swimming in order
to balance out the focus of the father. Overall it seems like the parents enjoy their experience, and
as such it is possible to say they coped well with stressors faced. Moving forward however, it
would be interesting to see how this parent-dyad copes when their daughter is finished with high
school and likely moves on to college swimming. Will they keep being involved to keep their
identity as a swimming family, or will they struggle with the normative family stressor of their
daughter leaving home (Boss, 1980)? Again, the parents of family four gave some advice for other
sports parents, listed in Table 7 below.
Table 7. Family 4 recommendations for other parents
The Mother
Swimming is a slippery slope. It will start off
nice and simple, but soon it will be a lot more
difficult to make it work. Be aware of this
slope
Put limitations on swimming. I did not and
ended up paying the price (but also receiving
reward)
Know how to work together as a family
Enjoy what you are doing

The Father
Let the coach be the coach.

Let your child develop on their own
Don’t bad talk coaches, those messages will
get heard by your child and undermine their
confidence in their coaches.
It’s a sport, and your child is doing the best
they can.

It’s not about you, it’s about your child.
Family 7 – the discordant mother.
The family and the advent of swimming. The family consists of a mother, 44; a father,
also 44; a 14 year old daughter, and 12 year old twins, one boy and one girl. The father is a
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pediatrician who currently plays in recreational softball and was previously a high school
basketball and baseball athlete. The mother is a stay-at-home parent, who has not participated in
sport either in the past or currently. The eldest daughter is the swimmer in the family, previously
a soccer and gymnastics athlete at the recreational level. She is also participating in flute lessons,
the national charity league, a junior honor society, and church activities. The younger daughter is
also currently involved in swimming, but at a recreational level (only three or so months of the
year), as well as jazz dancing, clarinet, the national charity league and church activities. Finally,
the son is also involved in swimming, again at a lower level, swimming approximately three
months a year. He also currently plays baseball and lacrosse at the recreational level, and also
practices guitar, trumpet, French horn, and attends church activities.
The eldest daughter swam from the age of five in the local summer swim league having
been taught to swim at the local pool by friends of the family. A few seasons later, one of the
recreational coaches mentioned that she might be good at year round swimming. The parents
attended an interest meeting, and from there the eldest daughter started swimming year round.
The parent dyad.
Benefits. The benefits of swimming involvement of this parent-dyad were, again,
numerous. The mother felt that her daughter’s development of a ‘swimmer’ identity was
particularly useful during the middle school years. Both parents discussed the health benefits, this
being one of the reasons they got her involved in the first place. Mom explained that her daughter
is much more health conscious, and developed several other life-skills like self-discipline, time
management, organization, and responsibility. Dad is a goal-oriented person by his own
description and likes the goal oriented nature of swimming for his daughter. The mother also feels
that being able to go to ‘big meets’ is an honor, and it makes all the sacrifice worth it, with everyone

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being able to feel proud of her achievements. Dad talked about particular experiences of seeing his
daughter perform at state championships the first time and completed her first open water two
kilometer swim as particularly proud moments of achievement, because she overcame nervousness
and met her goals.
Stressors and coping strategies. As with the other families that have been presented here,
both parents mentioned logistics as a stressor. The father had a busy schedule because of his job
as a physician, and this puts a lot of pressure on his wife to do the driving and get people from A
to B. The mother talked more in depth on how the logistical pressure is a challenge. Even though
she is a stay at home mother, the two-a-day practices of summer swimming mean that her day is
split up into uneven chunks that made it difficult to get things done. Additionally, the mother did
not like to have her twin sons take the journeys as well and insists that they are home and doing
something productive prior to taking the daughter to practice.
The logistical stressors were dealt with in a number of ways, one of which was to create a
carpool of local parents that also needed transportation for their children. This required constant
e-mails between all the parents involved. Other methods had been tried, such as a shared electronic
calendar, but this function did not work because parents in the carpool used different calendar
platforms. Additionally, the parent-dyad used a shared iCalendar as a central system to know their
responsibilities and commitments. As the main driver of the carpool, the mother used the travel
time as an opportunity to have quality interactions with her daughter and build their relationship,
essentially using cognitive reframing to turn driving from a negative to a positive. The mother
sounded like she enjoyed the opportunity to play counsellor for her daughter and her daughter’s
friends in the carpool

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The narrative that makes this family interesting is how open and honest the mother is
regarding the stressors of increased practice times during the holidays, which are normally times
for rest and recuperation. It is difficult to know if this participant is more honest, or if her views
are discordant to other participants. It is important to note that the mother was in the midst of
summer two-a-day practices at the time of the interview. Given what the nomothetic results show
regarding time commitment and logistics as a stressor, this summer schedule may be a direct reason
for her candor regarding summer practices. In either case, the following quotes demonstrate that
the mother had many stressors regarding the fact that swimming had become such a big part of
family life and felt that it was disturbing a natural life balance.
“You know, where he’s gone for eight hours on Saturday … like one time they had a meet
on mother’s day, and I mean I was miserable. I was furious and miserable. So like holidays
and stuff if there’s a meet, you know, we might do, we’ve learned that doesn’t go well with
me”
“… Christmas infuriates me, the doubles that Christmas pushes me over the edge, I will
tell you that. I cannot handle that and the summer as well … And I just said I’m done,
we’re not doing doubles and of course that gets [husband], and I, he’s more strict about
practice, her going to practice”.
Interestingly, the mother also discussed avoiding the swimming world in general,
particularly the social circles. She does not feel like she enjoys or understands the hypercompetitive side and does not attend meets or practices for that reason.
As further examples of life-balance being a priority for the mother, she refused to let her
twin sons sit at weekend long meets watching their sister swim, as she does not feel this was an
appropriate use of their time. Instead she stayed home with her sons to provide them with

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developmental time. All of these actions are also examples of the coping strategy this dyad uses,
particularly the mother, and that is boundary setting. Boundary setting is part of the active
philosophy the dyad has about swimming not being the only activity in their lives. They are able
to take a step back, put the sport in perspective and prioritize other things, such as the mother
spending time with her sons away from meets.
Finally, both parents also discussed stressors regarding life balance for the whole family,
but particularly their daughter. The father expressed concerns that swimming uses so much time
that it prevents his daughter from doing other activities and developing other skills. This concern
was articulated more deeply by the mother, who gave the example of her daughters’ enjoyment of
baking / cooking that she does not have the time to develop. Both parents talked about reading the
emotional state of their daughter and the general level of stress within the family to know when to
pull back or take a day or so off from swimming. Again, the mother gave very specific examples
of pulling back during summer swimming and not doing two-a-days in the summer between
middle and high school in order to give her daughter time off from swimming and be ready for the
following semester. Additionally, mom was aware that many adolescents drop out of sport around
her daughter’s age and wanted her daughter to continue in swimming, so she gave her the break in
order to avoid burnout.
Conclusions. This parent-dyad was particularly interesting because both parents had
clearly articulated views that are not necessarily convergent with other parents, especially the
mother. Other participants talked about life-balance and swimming not being the only activity, but
this dyad more actively demonstrated that they were willing to pull back from swimming to
provide that life balance. The consistency in this message between the parents, even though the
mother hints at some disagreement between her and her husband about missing regular training,

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suggests that this is a well-thought through philosophy shared between the two regarding their
family involvement in swimming. The quotes presented above also show that this philosophy
developed over time as acceptable boundaries were identified by situations exceeding what the
dyad, particularly the mother felt to be appropriate. As with other dyads, the parents from Family
7 have clear roles that enable the family to function, with the mother taking charge of driving their
daughter to swimming and taking care of the twins during swim meets, and the father is responsible
for swim meet attendance. It is perhaps the balance between the mother pushing for more family
time and the father pushing for practice attendance that creates appropriate balance.
Table 8. Family 7 recommendations for other parents
The Mother

The Father
Get to know someone that has been involved
longer than you

Use car-pools to manage logistical stress
Be in tune with your child, know when to pull
back, and don’t get bullied by coaches into
overcommitting

Don’t do too much too soon, slowly build up
your involvement – go slow.

Make sure to have swimming / life balance.
Important to do other things as well, don’t sell
You need to have other interests alongside
your soul to swimming.
swimming.
Family 10 – the parent coach.
The family and the advent of swimming. The family consisted of two parents, a mother
and father, and three children (one boy, two girls). The mother, 45, is a special education teacher
who previously competed in skiing and tennis during high-school. The father, 46, is also a teacher,
but additionally was a high-school and college swimmer in his youth, and is currently a swimming
coach for the club in which his daughter swims. During the course of each of his children’s
swimming careers he has acted as their coach, but he no longer coaches his own children, and
serves as a youth development coach. The son is the eldest child at 18, and he has been a swimmer
for approximately seven years. Despite the long involvement, his sport is water polo and soon after

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the parent interviews were conducted he was moving off to college to play water polo. He also
played football at the high school level, and previously took part in choir and orchestra. The second
oldest child, a daughter, is 15, and is the main swimmer in the family, with approximately seven
years’ experience. She also currently plays water polo at the club level and previously played
softball in elementary school. Finally, the youngest child is a 13 year old daughter. She is also a
swimmer, but much less committed, swimming some three or so months out of the year for middle
school. She is however a competitive diver at middle school, active in theatre, and previously took
part in softball and track for the club and middle school teams respectively. Like her siblings, she
also participates in orchestra and choir, and all three of the children currently participate in local
church activities.
The family became involved in swimming because of the father’s lifetime involvement in
the sport. The father was a collegiate swimmer, but also coached while he was in high school,
college, and beyond, including when he met his wife, and he coached for approximately 20 years.
Therefore he was coaching when his son was born and during his early life, and because he spent
a lot of time at the pool with his father, they put him in the swim team at five, and he progressed
from there. The elder daughter then saw her brother swimming and followed him into the sport
where she is currently excelling as an athlete. The mother highlights that the children were given
opportunities at other sports like t-ball and soccer, but swimming is the one they enjoyed most,
which is hardly surprising given the socializing agent father within the family.
The parent dyad.
Benefits. Both parents talked about making friends with other parents as being a benefit of
swimming involvement. This was the main benefit for the mother, as she is generally less active
at meets (dad coaches). She was delighted for the chance to interact with other parents, especially

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those who have children doing the same thing as her children. These interactions were important
at meets to help the time pass when she waits for several hours to see her children swim for only
a few minutes. Both parents also believed watching their children swim is fun and enjoyable. The
father in particular emphasized how much he enjoyed seeing improvement and his children meet
their goals, particularly challenges like qualifying for a big meet. The dad enjoyed being at swim
meets, perhaps more than the mother, because of his involvement as a coach. He also appreciated
that his children get to make good friends and stay active and healthy.
Stressors and coping strategies. The biggest stressor discussed by both parents is finances.
The family is described by the father as being a ‘one and a bit’ income household because the
mother did not have a permanent teaching position at the time of interview. Combining this income
with three relatively successful children in swimming, and the costs started to add up. Each of
these meets required travel, hotels, apparel, and food. This was particularly true when the middle
daughter is qualifying for states, zones, regionals, etc. The financial stressor also was connected
to the father’s role of coach, meaning they used to attend every meet for which they qualified,
regardless of whether the meet was a sensible developmental or financial choice.
The couple juggles finances on an ongoing basis, but has developed a number of coping
strategies. First, both parents, but particularly the mother, talked about the level of communication
between the pair regarding meet prioritization. It is no longer acceptable to go to a meet just
because they qualified, there must be an additional reason. Previously, Dad just signed people up
immediately, but now they discuss and reach a conclusion. Many meets are not as important later
in the teenage years as they were when the children were younger. Qualifying for the state meet
now is not the same as it was when the children were younger. Alongside this, the mother talked
about sharing their plans for prioritizing decisions based on finances with her children; for

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example, her children are given the choice of whether or not to purchase a meet shirt to celebrate
the achievement of being there. If they do purchase the shirt, then the money spent at meets is
deducted from budgets on clothes, meaning any shirts bought may have to be worn at school. The
father also admitted that swimming was putting them into some debt, but he still continued to put
expenses on a credit card because he knew the opportunity to be part of his children’s lives, and
swimming was short lived. His plan was to pay down the debt once his children were in college.
The roles that parents were required to play also were mentioned by the dyad as stressors
and coping strategies. For the mother, her roles fell within the family, whereas the fathers also fell
outside the family. Role following, (where a parent behaves according to the norms for a particular
role), helped the mother as a coping strategy for difficult post-meet discussions, or when the middle
daughter was talking about swimming in general. As a non-swimmer and non-athlete, the mother
found it difficult to understand the ups and downs of sporting competition, “… unfortunately my
reaction when they're happy about a swim is, I'm like "you know what, you improved your time,
get over it" … not a great way to handle it, but that's why I send them to my husband”. The mother
also tried to write lots of things down and listened to what is important about swimming for her
children so she could have conversations with them and demonstrate that she cares. The mother
ends up acting as organizer and financial planner, and lets the father deal with most of the
swimming related matters. The father, as a coach, better understood swimming and had developed
good communication strategies with his children for those types of situations. For the father, role
playing was a stressor on the basis that he must play several roles: teacher, parent, coach. He
sometimes struggled to find the division between these roles and not bring work to the pool, the
pool home, or any combination of the above. In particular, being both a parent and a coach could
be challenging when he had to talk to his child’s coaches, who were also his colleagues, about

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potential issues with his children. The father had worked on not letting stressors from one role
cross over into others, e.g., leaving school work at school, and coaching at the pool, so he could
just be ‘dad’ at home. He also adopted a role perspective prior to having difficult conversations as
a coping strategy, which was especially useful for difficult topics. The father communicated from
which role he was speaking prior to talking as a way of helping both himself and the other person
in the conversation understand the perspectives from which he would speak. The specific example
given was to tell other coaches that he was talking to them as a parent, not a coach, before
approaching topics regarding his daughter’s swimming.
Roles within the family were a big theme for this dyad for managing stressors. For example,
everyone’s schedules were posted on a big whiteboard at home; everyone knew where they needed
to be. Mom was the person who put this weekly plan together, alongside having a separate planner
in which she kept a master plan, as well as a meal and financial plan. Dad, being the coach, took
care of much of the swimming side, particularly as he was usually right on the spot when issues
arose. The father also helped with the dishes and other odd jobs. The children cleaned the house
when possible, as they had other roles to fulfil as well. These roles changed slightly when mom
did long-term substitute teaching, as generally less housework got done and the family went out
to eat more.
Consequently, the mother also had stressors regarding diet for her children. Due to the
amount of calories they burned, it could be very difficult to provide them with enough calories of
the right sort, especially with regard to the time it takes to prepare food. Trying to find nutritional
information for youth athletes was quite challenging. The mother dealt with this by talking to other
swimming parents, particularly one parent who went to see a nutritionist about what to feed her
swimmer. Discussions at swim meets about what other parents packed for their children, along

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with being planned with regard to meals at home so they do not end up resorting to fast food, were
coping strategies for this nutritional stressor.
Conclusions. The family was very heavily invested in swimming, which is not surprising
considering that the father was a swimming coach. The mother told a nice anecdote that she always
knew what she was getting in to. When she first started dating her husband, she had to qualify as
an official so she could spend time with him because he was coaching so frequently. Therefore
swimming has always been a constant priority in their relationship. Due to the fact that swimming
has always been this superordinate presence, the couple has, over time, had to learn to
communicate better about what things are automatic and what needs to be discussed.
Table 9. Family 10 recommendations for other parents
The Mother
Check the club website and other resources
regularly. Look ahead and plan otherwise you
will miss opportunities
Planning ahead in terms of food and diet.
Described as a ‘mom thing’. Having better
plans for eating will also help control budgets
Try to stay involved, volunteer, and be
helpful. Being on deck as a volunteer and
being positive when on deck will help
everyone.

The Father
Get your kids to practice every day. Kids will
develop routine, positive habits, better skills,
and more comprehensive relationships.
Do not dwell on times. They are one
performances that are not the ball and end all.
It’s a snapshot in time, don’t attach too much
to it.
Open communication with coaches, or at least
as best as you can do. Lines of
communication go in both directions between
parents and coaches. However,
communication is easier if coaches have a
relationship to work from or with.

Do not coach your own children – unless you
are qualified
Again, as with prior families, each parent had his/her role within the family. The mother is
responsible for planning, some logistics, finances, and food. While the father is responsible for
swimming, some household tasks, and swimming related communication with their children. They
share some common stressors, such as finances. However, they also have diverging stressors
unique to their own roles in the family. Therefore the parents perceive stress related to their roles
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within the family, and very little in the roles taken by their partner, thus sharing the stress and
responsibility across the two parents. The one stressor that both parents talked about in the same
way is finances; perhaps this stressor is too much for one parent to handle, and requires a
coordinated effort from them both. Therefore, the fact that other stressors are so clearly linked to
parent roles suggests that stressors are approached and coped with appropriately.
Conclusions. In conclusion, the case studies demonstrated that parent-dyads work together
in coping with stressors that arise from swimming involvement. Importantly, dyads worked
together to create roles for each parent in the dyad in order to best facilitate coping attempts. The
division of these roles fell on a spectrum from more shared stressors between parents in a dyad
resulting in more shared coping strategies to more individualized stressors and coping strategies
as parents were solely responsible for a stressor. While all dyads shared similar stressors, e.g.,
logistical stress, the way in which it manifested as a stressor for each dyad was dependent on dyadspecific demographics and narratives. For example, finances was a stressor for multiple families,
some because they only had one income for the household, another because one of their children
had suffered an injury during the year, and yet others had no financial issues. This individualized
narrative of stressors helps to explain the idiosyncratic perceptions of stressors and employment
of coping strategies. Importantly, although individual narratives meant that some different
stressors were reported by each dyad, and some different coping strategies were used, all parentdyads appeared to use effective coping strategies for the stressors faced.

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CHAPTER V
DISCUSSION
The current study was conducted in order to determine the stressors reported by parents
who have children enrolled in youth swimming, as well as to examine coping strategies for their
stressors. The findings resulting from the content analyses of the ten parent-dyad interviews (20
parent interviews total) will now be discussed relative to current sport parent research literature
and theorizing, study strengths and limitations outlined, future research directions identified, and
practical implications for sport parents. First, the benefits the parents experience as a result of
child’s swimming will be discussed, followed by a discussion of the stressors identified and the
coping strategies used to cope with these stressors. Second, the relationship between benefits,
stressor and coping strategies will be discussed, followed by key sport parent issues identified in
this study. Finally, the implications of this study will be addressed, study limitations specified and
future research directions outlined.
Benefits
The results demonstrated that parents perceive multiple benefits from being the parent of a
youth swimmer, including those directly related to swimming, as well as benefits to themselves,
their children, and their families. Many of the parent and child benefits such as parent friendships
and child life-skill development that were reported in this study agree with those found in prior
studies (e.g., Weiss & Fretwell, 2005; Wiersma & Fifer, 2008). However, there also were
extensions to the benefits reported in the extant literature in the form of family benefits and benefits
that are specific to swimming. It is not surprising that benefits relating to the family, and those
specific to swimming, have been found in the current study. Parents were asked directly about the
benefits because of their family’s involvement in swimming. Importantly then, the participants

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were primed as part of the informed consent, interview script, and questions regarding benefits
that were directly related to swimming and family. Additionally, prior research used parent
samples that were parent coaches (Weiss & Fretwell, 2005), or had parents across multiple youth
sport contexts (baseball, softball, and soccer), and a much wider age range (4-18) that would
indicate differing levels of involvement to the specialization or investment stage than was the focus
in the current study (Wiersma & Fifer, 2008). Consequently parents discussed more diverse
benefits from involvement outside of those directly to themselves or their child.
Over half of all raw data themes relating to benefits were child benefits. Therefore parents
saw their children as the primary beneficiaries of swimming involvement. Roughly one third of
these references were in relation to life-skill development, from 17 of 20 participants. In particular
parents mentioned (among others) time management and discipline as skills they see developing
in their child as a result of their swimming involvement. Again, this is not surprising, considering
the number of hours a week required of swimmers for practice, alongside training year round.
Discipline and time management are important, and parents talked about their child being
disciplined in regard to both school and swimming so they can do both.
Child success also was mentioned as a benefit by over half of the participants in the study,
and although this was not the most popular sub-theme, the way in which parents defined success
is important. Child success definitions varied from typical outcome goals of winning to
developmental goals such as achieving goals, overcoming adversity, and learning from mistakes.
In fact, the majority of parents defined success as mastery and improvement. Recently published
research by Dorsch, Smith, Wilson, and McDonough (2014a) demonstrated that parents have a
number of instrumental goals when first involving their children in sport (and subsequently),
including goals for developing as an athlete and growth as an individual. Therefore, the fact that

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swimming is perceived as meeting these needs may be one reason why parents keep their child in
swimming and serves as a big endorsement of the clubs involved and the sport, although it is not
unreasonable to suggest that other sports may have similar outcomes.
Additionally, benefits given specifically to swimming were elicited, extending previous
literature (Wiersma & Fifer, 2008; Weiss & Fretwell 2005). In particular, parents felt that learning
to swim was in and of itself an important skill for life, and that it was a sport that could continue
beyond high school and college. Parents also liked that swimming is a self-comparative sport
where the focus is on time more than winning or outcome. This information is potentially important
as selection criteria for parents when deciding what sports to enroll their children in. Many other
sports do not present opportunities for life-time involvement, and depending on parent goals, some
sports focus more on direct social comparison (e.g., football or volleyball) because score is only
kept relative to the overall outcome of a competition. However, in swimming individual times are
tracked in addition to overall outcomes. Therefore, parents need to consider their own goals and
their child’s goals for involvement in sports, look at the potential benefits of specific sports, and
find the best match. This may not only be the best for the child athlete, but also may reduce
potential stressors for parents.
Family benefits also were a new category of benefits elicited in the current study. Perhaps
the most interesting family benefit mentioned by parents was father involvement in family
activities. While this was reported for families with sons and/or daughters, it was more frequently
mentioned when the swimmer was a daughter. It may be that the co-educational nature of
swimming, along with the fact that it is a relatively unknown sport, allows fathers to be involved
as there are fewer gender stereotypes regarding parents. For example, one mother in particular
suggests that the father may not have been as involved had her daughter been interested in beauty

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pageants. This may also be true if children were involved in sports that are stereotypically referred
to as being more feminine. Finally, this suggests sports involvement may play an important role in
facilitating family relations. However, this potential certainly requires further study.
In summary, parents reported multiple benefits due to swimming involvement. The present
study corroborated the findings of previous studies with regard to parent and child benefits
(Wiersma & Fifer, 2008; Weiss & Fretwell 2005). Additionally, the current study extended the
literature by eliciting family benefits and benefits specific to the sport of swimming.
Stressors
Stressors, like time, organization, and watching competitions, experienced by parents in
the current study corroborate those found in previous studies (Hanton & Fletcher, 2005; Harwood,
Drew, & Knight, 2010; Harwood & Knight, 2009a; 2009b), but with extensions to organizational
stressors category and contextual differences to competitive stressors category. The data for the
present study fit the current understanding of organizational, competitive, and developmental
stressors for parents well (Hanton & Fletcher, 2005; Harwood, Drew, & Knight, 2010; Harwood
& Knight, 2009a; 2009b), except for the theme of child technology use, which was put into its own
general dimension. Additionally, the use of an abductive analysis process meant that the data for
organizational stressors did not fit directly into the five categories of organizational stressors
suggested by Hanton and Fletcher (2005), but each of these five categories was represented by the
stressors elicited in the current study. Many of the differences between the prior literature and the
current study have been discussed in detail in the results section, however, general differences and
some reasoning for differences are discussed below.
In general, parents in the current study mentioned a greater number of organizational
stressors versus less competitive stressors. This may be because of methodological differences in

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how parents were questioned about stressors (e.g., prompts in the current study may have been
more directed at family, social, and personal stressors), or it may be a true difference between
organizational and competitive stressors due to the nature of the sports and settings (academy vs.
club) that were examined (Harwood, Drew, & Knight, 2010; Harwood & Knight, 2009a; 2009b).
With regard to increases in organizational stressors, the current study was deliberately aimed at
determining stressors that exist within a parent-dyad, and so questions and probes were geared
more toward the organizational stressors than the competitive stressors. Additionally parents
talked less about having stress during competitions than in previous studies.
The lower number of competitive stressors reported in the current study versus previous
studies (Harwood, Drew, & Knight, 2010; Harwood & Knight, 2009a; 2009b) is likely due to
differences in the sporting contexts studied. Prior research has taken place in mainly academy
settings (Harwood, Drew, & Knight, 2010; Harwood & Knight, 2009a; 2009b). The experience of
club sport parents may be different to that of parents with children in an academy. Firstly, there is
less competition for places on a club sport team, as most competitions are independent entries or
open meets. Competitions for the team, even in school tend to involve every swimmer, even if it
is on a relay or on the B-team. Additionally, the place in the team is not dependent on performance,
and as such the performance outcomes of the child are more about the expectations and goals set
by the child, rather than the potentially extrinsic environment set by an academy. The club system
may allow parents in the current study to have, or to adhere to, a broader perspective on
development. As their child has not been placed in an academy, or, to some extent been told that
they have potential for professional sport involvement, they may have different expectations and
goals for involvement. As the environment is less competitive for positions and funding, it may
allow parents to look at other aspects of development and develop their own criteria for success,

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as demonstrated in the benefits section of the paper. In other words, parents in the current study
may appraise competitive stressors more as challenge stressors than harm/loss or threat stressors,
which thus results in more positive perceptions of competition (Dewe et al., 2012; Lazarus, 1999;
2001).
The typical organizational stressors from previous studies, including time, finances (under
planning and organization), organizational bodies and coaching, and injuries (under child athletic
development) also were found in the current study (Harwood, Drew, & Knight, 2010; Harwood &
Knight, 2009a; 2009b). However, other higher order themes and novel stressors also were
determined in this study, including personal, child, social and family stressors associated with
swimming. Social stressors, such as other sports parents, have previously been categorized as
competitive stressors, i.e., a stressor during competitions due to undesirable behaviors (Harwood
et al. 2010; Harwood & Knight 2009a; 2009b). However, the results of the current study suggested
that other sport parents are a source of stress outside of competition, especially with regard to other
parents’ perceptions and potential negativity toward coaches and clubs. The fact that parents in the
current study perceive other parents as negative is not surprising considering a large number of
them volunteer for general or board-specific roles within swimming clubs and feel unappreciated
for their efforts by other parents. Additionally, swimming clubs contain numerous squads with
large numbers of athletes. This means it is difficult for every parent to be satisfied with the quality
and/or type of coaching.
Learning the sport is a stressor that was not reported in previous studies (Harwood, Drew,
& Knight, 2010; Harwood & Knight, 2009a; 2009b). This is most likely because swimming,
although an Olympic sport, is less in the public consciousness than the professional sports of soccer
and tennis, which appear more often in the main stream media, particularly in the U.K. context of

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previous research. While swimming may raise to high levels of public awareness once every four
years for the Olympics because of the success of athletes such as Michael Phelps and Missy
Franklin, it does not get the same airtime during the remainder of the Olympic cycle. It is much
less likely to be a sport in which one of the parents participated, outside of recreational swimming,
which of course is much different than soccer and tennis, which were the primary sports
represented in previous sport parent stress studies (Harwood, Drew, & Knight, 2010; Harwood &
Knight, 2009a; 2009b). Therefore, parents are less aware of the strokes and competition rules when
their child enters the sport, which is additionally complicated because competition formats and
rules used at lower levels are not the same as at televised competitions. For this reason, there is
much for parents to learn about the sport, which can be stressful when they are trying their best to
guide their sons and/or daughters through the sport so that they can achieve developmental goals.
As an example, swimsuits were mentioned by one parent as being particularly stressful. Swimsuits
are an expensive piece of equipment parents may not have had to purchase before, that also have
some very strict guidelines for usage. Failing to care for them properly may ultimately turn into an
expensive mistake.
Previous research highlighted stressors parents had with regard to balancing school and
sport, particularly where parents felt they were not getting requisite support from schools
(Harwood, Drew, & Knight, 2010; Harwood & Knight, 2009a; 2009b). While school balance was
still a stressor for parents in the current study, the change to the context of the United States
changed the way in which this stressor was manifested and resulted in additional stressors for
parents. More specifically, in the U.K. there is only one school transition, between primary
(elementary) and secondary (high-school), due to a lack of middle-school. This transition also
usually occurs before the specialization or investment stages of sporting involvement. In the

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United States however, there are two transitions, with the middle-school to high school transition
occurring during specialization or investment. Additionally school sport is much more highly
valued in the U.S. than in the U.K., where there are few to no school swimming teams that actually
compete in a regular basis or have dedicated coaches. The result of this difference in sporting
structure in schools is that parents did not mention a lack of support from schools in trying to
provide balance for their children, it was mainly a time management and logistics stressor. The
stressors here were about the transition between schools and how an increase in academic rigor
and work load would influence swimming involvement, and how a change to high school
swimming would influence their child. In particular, some parents were also concerned that having
two different coaches (club and school), who may have differing coaching styles and goals for
their child, would be detrimental to their development.
Interestingly, a source of stress that began to emerge from interviews with parents was
other children within a club. For instance, a few of the parents discussed that their child had
experienced disagreements with other swimmers, which were stressful for their child but also the
parent. Naturally this stressor was not direct to the parent, but manifested through his/her child’s
interactions with other children. It was one of the more challenging stressors for parents to cope
with because it did not directly affect them, and given the age and power difference in the
relationship, it would be inappropriate to intervene directly. However, parents were able to use
disagreements between their child and other children as a teachable moment and discuss the kinds
of behaviors they would like to see and how people should act.
One raw data theme that arose as a stressor for some parents but as a coping strategy for
others was coach communication. Some parents felt that they were able to communicate
effectively with their child’s coach and in doing so were able to alleviate a stressor they were

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experiencing. Others found coach communication to be a stressor, particularly where
communication was not effective or forthcoming at all. What this finding serves to demonstrate is
that stress and coping are highly idiosyncratic to the parent(s) and the context. Some of these
parents may have shared the same coaches and yet had different perceptions about the
communication between the coach and themselves. Therefore, consistent with previous theorizing
(Lazarus, 1999; 2001) stressors must be viewed as a complex process, such that they do not
manifest in exactly the same way for everyone. One parent’s stressor may be another parent’s
coping strategy.
Another novel stressor for parents was volunteering, particularly those parents who had
volunteered on club boards. Most board positions are volunteer positions, but require parents to
adapt roles for which there would usually be qualifications and remuneration. However, there is
typically little volunteer training, especially for unwritten skills like managing roles (e.g., parent
vs. official), and they are asked to fulfil these positions on top of their regular employment. The
positions are often unappreciated by other parents and open to criticism, causing parent stress. As
will be highlighted in the implications section of the discussion, it may be pertinent for parent-led
clubs to start offering training to parents for the roles they fulfil, including how to manage multiple
roles.
The study of stressors can be challenging when discussing with a lay audience. Parents
perceived the word stress as highly negative, and only negative. On several occasions parents
talked about enjoying swimming meets, but having elevated heart rate or anxiety during races.
However, they did not want to refer to this physiological arousal as stress because they did not
think it was negative. This makes it difficult to determine if parents were aroused but not stressed
or did not feel comfortable reporting being stressed. Hence, the use of the term challenge was seen

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as more positive by parents, and allowed more discussion of what potential stressors may have
been. Future stress and coping investigators should keep this point in mind when conducting
additional studies in this area, especially when attempting to determine ‘benefit’ stressor appraisal
as suggested by Lazarus (2001; Dewe et al., 2012).
The discussion of historical stressors (stressors that are no longer present in parents’ lives,
or have reduced in magnitude) was inevitable because questioning was open ended regarding all
stressful experiences within swimming. These historical stressors were taken into account, and
they allowed the investigator to have a glimpse of how stressors change over time, e.g., changes
to the logistical challenge when children transition between middle and high school, or when they
learn to drive. These responses also allowed a better understanding of the process of stress and
coping, how the magnitude of the logistical stressor changed over time and the various coping
strategies parents utilized over a period of time. While an in-depth understanding of how
cognitions (and thus stress appraisals) changed over time was not possible using the current
methodology, the present findings demonstrated that they are not static concepts. This conclusion
is supported by Lazarus (1999), and a need to better understand the primary (and secondary)
appraisals of stressors by parents is required. The evolution of stressors over time certainly
emphasizes the need for longitudinal studies if researchers are to further understand the stress and
coping appraisal process in sport parents.
The level of stress associated with some stressors, such as the time management and
logistical stressors was much less than anticipated considering the frequency with which they were
mentioned. Additionally, some of the less frequently mentioned stressors were particularly
stressful for some parents, such as injuries. This indicated that parents have found effective coping
strategies for many every day stressors. As the case study analyses found, parents often developed

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multiple, complex coping strategies for logistical stressors. Along with this, some stressors may
have been normalized over a period of time (Boss, 1980), or parents are experiencing effects
similar to stress inoculation due to repeated exposure (Meichenbaum, 1996). This is why the lesser
reported stressors may have been perceived as more stressful by some parents, they were novel
and required new coping strategies to be formed. Again, within the Lazarus (1999; 2001)
framework, novel stressors will be appraised as having higher levels of threat or hurt because they
are unknown and secondary appraisal (appraisals of coping potential) will be lower, thus
increasing stress.
In summary, parents experienced a wide range of organizational, competitive,
developmental, and general stressors. Many of these stressors, especially within organizational,
competitive, and developmental categories, are corroborated by previous research (Harwood,
Drew, & Knight, 2010; Harwood & Knight, 2009a; 2009b). Other stressors, such as the general
stressors dimension, learning the sport, and other swimmers are novel stressors to the literature.
Additionally, a number of stressors, such as other sports parents, have been found previously, but
are manifested in different ways in the current study. Therefore the sport, the context for sport
(club vs. academy), and the country (U.S.A. vs. U.K.) may all play a role in stressor appraisal by
sports parents. Finally, the frequency or normalcy of a stressor may play a role in its perceived
magnitude, with unexpected stressors being perceived as more stressful.
Coping Strategies
The results of coping strategies analyses in the current study are novel because of the
context being studied. Previous studies in sport coping have focused primarily on the athlete
(Gould et al., 1993a; 1993b). The number of coping strategies reported by parents suggests that
parents do not just use one coping strategy for any one stressor, as there are more coping strategies

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than there are stressors. This supports previous stress and coping research in athletic populations
(Gould et al., 1993a; 1993b). The two most important coping strategies for parents included having
an active philosophy for involvement and communication. The active philosophy for involvement
allowed parents to put their experiences into perspective and make decisions about how they
wanted to progress, or react to, stressors. Faced with a multitude of stressors, such as logistical,
time, financial, and child athletic development, parents are required to make decisions about where
to put their limited resources of time, energy, and money. Having a philosophy, however
fluctuating it may be, assists parents in making quick decisions and providing a rationale for
making that decision, that might otherwise take much longer, and be more stressful. This coping
strategy is similar to sport psychology coaching research which suggests that having a coaching
philosophy is critical for effectively working with athletes (Gould, Collins, Lauer, & Chung,
2007). Interestingly in this study, having a philosophy was an effective coping mechanism for
sport parents.
Relative to having a parenting philosophy, it is reasonable to suggest that the process of
making difficult decisions factors in to philosophy generation over time, and there is a constant
learning curve associated with developing one’s philosophy. Again, it is having a rationale for
decisions that provides parents with some comfort regarding outcomes. Spending on a credit card
may put a family into debt; however, if the philosophy of the family is to get the most out of the
swimming experience while they can, then this allows a parent to make a decision that may involve
spending money (within a certain limit) and thus reduce perceptions of stress regarding finances.
The appraisal of the financial stressor is likely to be one of threat due to its future-oriented nature,
i.e., the need to pay the credit card bill at the end of the month as opposed to right now. Having an
active philosophy may allow the appraisal of this financial stressor as a threat to be reduced and

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be appraised more as a benefit because it facilitates goal acquisition (Lazarus, 1999; 2001).
Alternatively (or additionally) a well-defined philosophy for involvement may fit within the
CMRT as an emotional-focused coping strategy, a way of reappraising the transaction between the
situation and personal resources in order to reduce the severity of a stressor (Lazarus, 1999; 2001).
Further investigation of the appraisal process is required to get a full understanding.
How parents put together their philosophy over time and the priorities / sacrifices they are
willing to make should be monitored over time. Several parents in the study talked about how they
got sucked in to swimming as a sport and perhaps did not set enough boundaries on their time.
Missing family reunions or holidays in preference of swimming were sometimes regretted after
the fact. Therefore, parents need to regularly reflect and communicate with their partner, and
significant others, to determine if their philosophy is still rational and reasonable to them and their
families.
Communication, although not a superordinate (general category into which all other coping
strategies would fit) coping strategy, is useful in almost every other coping strategy, as well as
being a coping strategy in and of itself. Reaching out to others for support (emotional and physical),
and planning and organization in particular require communication with other people in order to
make the coping strategies work. The importance of communication was highlighted by the parentdyad case studies as multiple dyads often reported similar stressors and coping strategies between
the two parents interviewed, demonstrating that these stressors were shared between parents, and
coping strategies, such as defined parent roles were developed as a response. Communication
serves as the basis for many other coping strategies; therefore, it is important to develop
communication skills, especially with those people that can offer the most support: partners,
children, family, friends, and coaches.

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One set of coping strategies that was elicited because of the parent-dyad case study design
was the use of ‘divide and conquer’ (parents sharing responsibility) by parents to meet the demands
of stressors, such as logistical challenges. While parents mentioned the idea of shared
responsibilities in nomothetic analyses, the narratives allowed insight in to how parents subdivided
responsibilities and used the coping strategy of role following (although this was sometimes also
a stressor) to ensure that all needs are met. For example, some parents were the taxi driver to and
from practice, some were responsible for food preparation, some went to meets while others did
not, some took a back seat in the swimming experience to balance out the high level of involvement
from the other parent. The pattern of how parents split responsibilities could be subdivided into
two main methods. Either parents truly shared all stressors, such that they both assisted with most
stressors and had moderate stress ratings across the board, or each had highly defined roles such
that their stress was much higher for certain stressors than others (these were often oppositional to
those of their partner). It was not clear from the methods used how parents came to adopt their
roles or how they split stressors between them, but both methods appeared to be successful in
helping parent-dyads to cope with a multitude of stressors. Finally, these two methods of assigning
and coping with stressors appeared to be the two ends of a spectrum, as opposed to a true
dichotomy. Therefore parents in the current study fell on the spectrum between these two extremes.
Importantly, within the group of current participants there appeared to be less reliance on
traditional gender role stereotypes and how tasks were divided. For example, the father of Family
3 was a stay at home father to allow his wife to pursue her career while still providing what they
believe to be the correct balance of other activities for their children. Many couples spoke of the
father being responsible for food preparation or housework, with the mother taking care of
finances. It appeared that the division of labor was based more strongly around playing to the

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strengths of each individual and who was actually available to do each task. This is not to suggest
that gender stereotyping did not exist in the sample and the finding must be interpreted with caution
as: (1) this was not a primary question of the current study and as such the finding is based on
investigator interpretation; and (2) the data may not reflect actual beliefs or behaviors separate
from those discussed.
While the existing families of coping framework (Skinner et al., 2003; see Table. 1) that
involved general coping dimensions (families) such as problem-solving, accommodation, and selfreliance did not fit the current data set, all of the coping strategies presented could fit within one
or more of the coping families. The fact that coping strategies elicited in the current study could
fit within multiple families of coping was the reason that the current data were deemed
inappropriate. In hierarchical thematic analysis items are supposed to exist in mutually exclusive
categories (i.e., avoid multiple coding). As an example, parents used communication with each
other, their children, and friends for multiple reasons, including support and information seeking
(both of which are families of coping within existing frameworks). Within the families of coping
typology, these types of communication would be represented separately, but were often engaged
in concurrently. That said, the current coping strategies can be viewed within the families of coping
typology in that almost all of the coping families were represented by strategies in the current
study, which means that all coping functions and adaptive processes also were used by parents.
Using the 12 families of coping framework (Skinner et al., 2003), the majority of parent
coping strategies elicited in the current study were adaptive, with few examples of maladaptive
coping such as submission or opposition. As an example, the coping families framework included
a general dimension called ‘adaptive process of coordinating actions and contingencies in the
environment’, which includes the coping families of problem-solving, information seeking,

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helplessness, and escape (Skinner et al., 2003). Planning and organization, as a general dimension
of coping in the current study is highly representative of the example strategies of strategizing,
planning, and instrumental action. Thus, as the families of coping framework suggests, parents
that use planning and organization were adjusting their actions to be effective in the face of
stressors. Similarly, information seeking through research, discussing with other parents, and
meeting with coaches suggests parents were finding additional contingencies for stressors.
Additionally, the coping strategies presented in the current study can be examined using
the emotion- and problem-focused coping typology (Folkman & Moskowitz, 2004; Lazarus, 1999;
2001). Overall, this typology was considered too simplistic to represent the vast number of
strategies described by parents. However, the usefulness of the coping strategies can be examined
within that dichotomy. Many of the coping strategies were problem-focused rather than emotionfocused, and this represents the fact that most of the stressors were changeable, e.g., changing
swimming clubs. The coping strategies general dimensions of justification for swimming
involvement, communication, and support contain some problem-focused coping strategies, such
as talking to a coach about a specific problem, but also emotion-focused coping strategies where
parents attempt to cope with difficult situations that are unchangeable, or they do not wish to
change. For example, many parents probably did not feel it is within their purview to scale back
their child’s involvement in swimming. While this might mean missing summer vacations, parents
were making a choice to take vacations around swimming because they do not want to change the
situation. Therefore, they must engage in emotion-focused coping because they chose not to
engage in problem-focused coping.
Overall it would appear that coping strategies used by parents were successful. Although
there was no objective measure of stress across parents, no parents suggested they were so stressed

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they did not know how to cope, or were having difficulty functioning. Thus, either through
stressors being of a low level or the adoption of successful coping attempts, these parent dyads
were able to cope with challenges faced in youth swimming.
In conclusion, parents reported using multiple coping strategies for the stressors they
experienced. All coping strategies were useful for parents, and the vast majority were adaptive.
Seemingly the most important coping strategies for parents were having justifications for
swimming involvement and communication. The coping strategies elicited were either consistent
with or could be viewed within the framework’s prior literature (Folkman & Moskowitz, 2004;
Skinner et al., 2003). However, the application of these coping strategies to the context of sport
parenting within the sport of swimming is novel. Finally, interviewing both parents and the use of
case study analyses allowed understanding of how parents co-ordinate efforts in order to reduce
the influence of stressors and enhance coping strategies.
Relationships between Benefits, Stressors, and Coping Strategies
Thus far the discussion has focused on the categories of benefits, stressors, and coping
strategies that were elicited through interview and analyses. They have been discussed in isolation,
however there are some clear links between some benefits, stressors, and coping strategies. It is
these links between that are important if one is to understand how parents perceive stress and cope
with stressors that occur.
The relationships between these benefits, stressors, and coping strategies can be simple
and/or complex. For example, a relatively simple relationship exists between logistical and time
management stressors and the coping strategies of parent communication, and planning and
organization. Although these examples do not fully explain how parents experience and deal with
many logistical stressors, it demonstrates the relatively linear relationship between stressor and

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coping strategy. On the more complex end, the benefits of having a child involved in swimming
(e.g., life-skill development and child success) may drive parent priorities and alter their active
philosophy for involvement (e.g., perspective taking and mastery focus), which helps them cope
with stressors experienced (e.g., parent competitive expectations and the outcomes of competitive
events). Thus, benefits, stressors, and coping strategies would be best understood if examined
concurrently.
Additionally, no one parent acted in isolation. The case study analyses demonstrated that
parents within a dyad communicate with each other about the benefits, stressors, and coping
strategies they experience and use. Additionally, parents interact with their child, extended family,
friends, coaches, and other swimming parents. Each of these social agents influences how a
stressor is experience and the effectiveness of any coping strategy used. Hence, sport parenting
operates in an ecological system (Brofenbrenner, 2005) that involved each parent, parent-to-parent
interaction, and interactions with family, other swimmers and their parents, clubs, coaches, and
administrators. It therefore may be naïve to look at only one parent or parent-dyad in the system.
Consequently the interrelations between benefits, stressors, and coping strategies, and the
fact that parents do act in isolation make the study of the stress and coping process challenging.
The links between stressors and coping strategies suggested that there are some more general
coping strategies and some more specific coping strategies used by parents. In more general
coping, general dimensions of coping strategies map well on to general dimensions of stressors.
The two general dimensions of planning and organization (as both a stressor and a coping strategy)
served as a good example. In more specific coping, higher- or lower-order coping themes matched
directly with higher- or lower-order stressors, such as trusting the coaches’ knowledge as a coping
strategy for coaches as stressors.

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The use of general and specific coping strategies may by the most effective for parents.
More general coping dimensions allow for coping across multiple stressors such that the coping
strategy may be used for more than one stressor at a time, e.g., use of perspective taking as a way
of coping with both stressful financial decisions and the logistical challenges of swimming.
Additionally, these more general coping dimensions may contain both emotion-focused (e.g.,
perspective taking) and problem-focused (e.g., prioritization) coping strategies such that parents
can choose which one best suits the situation, as suggested by the goodness of fit hypothesis
(Folkman and Moskowitz, 2004). More specific coping strategies are designed for context-specific
stressors and may be more effective in reducing parent stress because they are directly related to a
stressor. For example, one of the best ways to reduce the stressor of having a lack of knowledge
of the sport is to put forth effort to learn the sport (a coping strategy elicited in the study). Overall,
parents having both general and specific coping strategies available to them allows them to select
the best available coping strategy at the time and match the stressor to the appropriate type of
coping, emotion- or problem-focused.
In conclusion, the potential complexity and idiosyncratic use of coping strategies means
that it was sometimes easy to link stress and coping strategies as being regularly used across a
number of parent-dyads, but others were much less predictable. More general and more specific
coping strategies were employed by parents depending on the context-specificity of the stressor
experienced and to match problem- or emotion-focused coping to the stressor as per the goodness
of fit hypothesis. Therefore, providing parents with a range of coping strategies and suggestions
for how they might be used may be helpful to parents, but they should be encouraged to develop
their own ways of using specific coping strategies that work best for themselves.

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Sport Parenting Issues
Despite many anecdotal reports from participants in the current study, as well as from
mainstream media, about parent-child conflicts, especially after meets, very few parents in the
current study discussed engaging in these behaviors themselves. That raises several questions
about potential social-desirability effects or selective sampling (e.g., only intact families who
effectively work together volunteered for the study and parents who experienced considerable
conflicts did not). How much of that is disproportionate reporting of high stress parents that are
not representative of the current sample? Do children and their parents over-report these
occurrences and blow things out of proportion? A recent study by Dorsch et al. (2014a)
demonstrates that parents sometimes engage in behaviors that are discordant with their goals for
child sport involvement, and it would not be unreasonable to believe that this may the case in the
current sample, but it is not perceived or noticed as being negative in the way an external observer
would categorize the behavior. The result is parents need to be aware of their behaviors, especially
in light of the numerous stressors faced, as they may not reflect their beliefs. Additionally, they
should work toward coping strategies (e.g., an active philosophy for involvement and
communication with their child) to reduce their stress and avoid engaging in negative behaviors.
Additionally, it is clear that parents are devoting a great deal of time to their children in the
pursuit of swimming excellence. Some parents are making direct sacrifices in the short term in the
knowledge that the ‘journey’ will be over soon. Additionally, many of the swimming experiences
are very similar, suggesting that parents do not have much choice in dedicating time to the current
youth swimming experience. How does this level of effort reflect back on the parents and their
children once they move on to the next stage of life? Does it make normative life stressors (such
as a child moving out of the house) (Boss, 1980) more stressful for sport parents? Does intense

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involvement in one’s child’s sporting experience influence family life both in the here and now,
as well as years to come? The current study cannot determine the answers to those questions,
however, it may be important to examine further. For example, there may be a need to develop
ways for swimming clubs and sport psychology practitioners to provide parents with additional
choices about how to navigate the youth sport experience, particularly in swimming.
Applied Implications
The results and discussion of this study have a number of implications for parents, coaches,
and clubs. Many of these implications for each population are based upon the same principles, but
are reported separately in order to maximize understanding.
Parents
1. Develop a clear and developing philosophy for involvement. This should include the
parents’ goals for their child’s involvement, the child’s goals, and family values and
priorities. As the most commonly used coping strategy, and perhaps the one that most
relates to emotion-focused coping, parents need to develop an active philosophy for their
child’s involvement in swimming. It is important to note that this will change over time, as
demonstrated by Dorsch et al. (2014a), but knowing if parents are aware of their priorities
for involvement it will help them set goals with their child for involvement in the sport and
keep difficult outcomes in perspective. For example, if priority for involvement is the
development of life- and swimming-skills, then goals will be more participation and
mastery focused than a parent who prioritizes winning.
2. Alongside the first recommendation is for parents to acknowledge the commitment the
family (both the children and themselves) is making by enrolling in swimming for the
purposes of reaching the top level. While many parents state benefits to involvement in

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swimming, there are some necessary stressors, particularly those relating to logistics and
time management that come from specialization or investment in swimming. Parents must
align child and parent goals for involvement with their active philosophy. For example, if
swimming demands that you compete on weekends, including those during major holidays,
are parents willing to make that a priority? Knowledge of how parents will approach these
decisions even if they do not have answers currently will assist in reducing parent stress.
3. Communication is key to coping. While communication was not represented at the top of
the coping hierarchy because it was difficult to ascertain that it was super-ordinate to all
coping strategies, it formed the basis for a number of coping strategies, such as information
seeking, support seeking, and role following. Additionally, parents will not, or perhaps do
not, have to experience their stressors and develop coping strategies in isolation from other
people, including their children, family, coaches, and friends. Communicating with other
people will be primary in developing and utilizing effective coping strategies.
4. Stressors will be multiple. Just as with other aspects of life, stressors due to sport
involvement will be multiple and co-occurring. Many of these will be small day-to-day
stressors that are manageable, some will be more stressful but foreseen, and others will be
unforeseen and perhaps present the biggest challenges to parents. Understanding that
stressors will occur and having a process for dealing with them is essential. Contingency
plans will certainly assist in coping with stressors when they occur.
5. Enjoy the journey. The parents whose children were entering or leaving their final years of
high school highlighted that their direct involvement in the swimming careers of their
children was coming to an end, and that it was a short period of time. Their advice was to
enjoy the ups and downs of the journey.

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6. Be self-aware and reflective. Parents need to be aware that just as other parents can be
stressors, and important sources of support and information for coping, they themselves
can be that source of stress or support for others. The timing, context, and content of parent
communications are important details that may change interpretation of the message and
change another parent from someone who may act as a confidant to a source of stress.
Therefore parents need to be self-aware in their communications to ensure they are not
causing stress for other parents, and perhaps find a trusted source with whom they can
discuss difficulties. Parents also need to reflect on their parenting practices from time to
time to recognize what works and what is less effective.
Coaches and Clubs
1. Perhaps the most important implication for coaches and clubs in reducing parent stress is
to understand that they only have control over certain stressors, and they do not have
control over the majority of parent stressors. For example, coach and club communication
is a stressor over which they have control, whereas a lack of time with family members
may be beyond their control. As such, the role which coaches and clubs can play is
somewhat limited:
a. Reducing stress in those situations over which they have control. Examples include
club and coach communication, club actions, coaching styles, and volunteering (see
below). Communication needs to be clear and regular with parents. Additionally,
clear and frequent communication on club actions, and /or coaching styles or
philosophies up front can remove uncertainty and promote transparency to parents.
While this can be difficult as coaches also have busy and stressful lives, and club
boards are usually comprised of volunteers, it may prevent unwanted and

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unnecessary parent stress further down the line. Perhaps educating parents on the
rules, procedures, and unwritten knowledge (e.g., buying and maintaining
swimsuits) right from the start would be helpful since many parents perceive
stressors regarding learning the basics of the sport.
b. Being understanding of the stressors over which they do not have control. This
point will be illustrated with an example: coaches, particularly those in high
performance squads, need to set and hold athletes to high standards regarding
behavior, especially arriving on time for practices. However, in most case where
the child is under 16 years of age, they do not have ultimate control over when they
arrive at practice, and their parents may have significant logistical issues.
Therefore, criticizing the child or complaining to the parents before first
understanding the family context will increase parent stress. The author of the
current study is not suggesting that a coach (or club) hold different standards for
different individuals, but an effort from coaches and clubs to communicate and
understand parent perspectives has the potential to reduce parent stress.
2. Additionally, coaches and clubs can help by focusing on helping parents develop
appropriate coping strategies, some of which are discussed below. Importantly,
communication from clubs and coaches is again paramount to ensure that the right
information is being disseminated to parents and this is, particularly important if clubs are
going to promote social networks.
a. Helping parents learn the sport, including coaching practices. One coping strategy
that was important to parents, and probably reduces several stressors, is learning
the sport of swimming. By educating parents about the sport, a number of what-if’s

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and unknowns are removed about the sport and about coaches. Additionally,
educated parents will ask educated questions, which will allow for more expedient
problem solving.
b. Helping parents to develop an appropriate active philosophy for involvement. As
mentioned in parent implications, having an active philosophy for involvement
helps reduce parent stress, as they are more easily able to engage in emotionfocused coping, such as perspective taking. Clubs and coaches, as part of their
education and learning the sport can disseminate accurate information regarding
youth sport involvement, can discuss with parents the appropriate levels of
involvement, and can encourage parents to develop their philosophy.
c. Parent social network development. Communication with other parents also was an
important coping strategy for parents. They used other parents for support, for
information seeking, and for friendship (a major parent benefit). If clubs help to
connect parents, they begin to provide a social network to which parents can go for
a number of coping strategies. Putting parents in contact could take the form of
informal introductions or more formal programs intended to develop connections.
3. Finally, one of the stressors mentioned by some parents was volunteering for a club, at both
a general and board level. As previously discussed, the level of support and training for
these individuals is potentially quite low, particularly board positions. Therefore providing
board members with training relevant to their role, including logistical management and
personal role conflict would be important. An example might be the development of best
practice guidelines on managing multiple roles, such as communicating to the coaches as
a parent and/or as a board member. Parents do not expect payment when they take volunteer

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positions, but they often feel the position is thankless, so providing thanks to volunteers
also may prove useful.
Limitations and Future Directions
Limitations
The methods used in the current study make it difficult to draw definitive relationships
between all benefits, stressors, and coping strategies because parents were asked about coping
strategies in relation to a single stressor. Links between certain stressors and coping strategies
have been determined, but also highlighted that benefits are also linked to the perception of
stressors and use of coping strategies. Therefore future studies should look at having parents try
to explain the relationships between all three.
The cross-sectional nature of the study did not allow an understanding of the stress and
coping appraisal ‘process’ that unfolds over time as defined by Lazarus (1999; 2001). This was
defined as a gap in the literature at the beginning of the study, and it remains so. Longitudinal
studies with parents would allow better determination of how stress develops and coping
strategies are developed over time. Additionally, longitudinal designs may assist with being able
to determine not only what relationships exist between benefits, stressors, and coping strategies,
but also how those relationships change over time. Recent studies, by Dorsch et al. (2014a;
2014b) demonstrated that prolonged engagement with participants allow a better understanding
of process and the development of parent goals, behaviors, and socialization over time.
One of the keys to understanding and interpreting qualitative data is contextual
information regarding the sample, which for this study was relatively homogenous. They were
mainly well educated, similar in age, and either were employed or had made the choice not to be
employed. The demographic questionnaire did not allow determination of ethnicity, although one

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family did self-identify their child as biracial. This omission from the demographic questionnaire
was an oversight, as it does not allow any conclusions to be drawn as to differences in parent
experience based on ethnicity. The USA Swimming membership demographics report (USA
Swimming, 2013) suggests that the vast proportion of swimmers (39.2% of 51.3%) who are
members of USA swimming are white. Thus, based on five face-to-face interviews and USA
swimming data, it is likely that the majority of the sample was white, although this interpretation
of the sample is suggested with supreme caution. Additionally many participants were volunteers
for their clubs either at a general or board level, with one parent coach. It is perhaps this final
point regarding regularity of volunteering that suggests the sample represents parents that are
likely to want to assist in helping out. This self-selection based on the desire to volunteer might
mean that the parents that perceive the most stress or have the least effective coping strategies
did not participate in the study. Additionally, as volunteers and having good educational
backgrounds, parents are potentially more likely to have developmental goals for their child’s
involvement.
This leads to the final limitation, the non-participation of the father from family six and
the subsequent exclusion of the data collected from the mother. This is an important finding in
and of itself. The reason given by the mother for potential non-participation (prior to solicitation
of the father) was a lack of time due to a busy work schedule. However, is it possible that there
was another reason? Are the parents in this dyad different from the sample in some way, such as
not managing stressors as well? Were the parents as effective at communication, deemed one of
the most important coping strategies, if one parent did not take part? The non-participation raises
a number of questions, and along with the relative homogeneity of the sample leads to a need to
study more diverse populations in subsequent studies.

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Future Directions
First, there is a need for additional studies where parents are asked to determine how
benefits, stressors, and coping strategies are related to each other to ascertain a better
understanding of those relationships. The use of concept or eco maps (Hodge, 2000), based on
the results of the current study and previous literature (Harwood et al., 2010; Harwood & Knight,
2009a; 2009b) to help parents draw the links between themes may prove useful.
Additionally, as previously mentioned, the use of longitudinal methodologies to
understand stress and coping as a process over time are a necessary part of future studies. How
do perceptions of stressors and coping attempts change over time? It would be interesting to
understand if and how coping attempts change based on fluctuations in the severity and type of a
stressor. Additionally, given the recent growth in resilience research in sport (Fletcher & Sarkar,
2013), the continued interest in mental toughness development (Jones, Hanton, & Connaughton,
2002), and the field of family resilience (Nichols, 2013), it may be pertinent to understand parent
stress and coping in relation to ‘critical incidents’ to the development of family and parent
resilience. How do parents’ stress and coping attempts fluctuate with large stressors, that are both
normative (e.g., school transitions) and non-normative life stressors (sporting injury and/or
achievement). The use of researcher observations, parent reflective journaling, and interviews
have proved useful methods of data collection for longitudinal studies previously and should be
investigated as potential means for the stress and coping context (Dorsch et al., 2014a; 2014b).
Finally, the inclusion of children in the research process as a source of novel information
and parent triangulation may also be useful. Parents in the current study discussed using child
communication and practicing emotional intelligence as coping strategies for themselves, and in
the hope of reducing child stress. Do their children perceive these practices as occurring, do they

213

believe them to be as helpful as parents see them, and are there any strategies that are actually
reducing the enjoyment for their children? This information would be important as it would let
parents know that they need to find alternative coping strategies for stressors.

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APPENDICES

215

APPENDIX A

RECRUITMENT FLYER

216

Do you and/or your partner experience stress
from being a swimming parent?
We need participants for a research study “The Stressors Experienced and Coping Strategies Used
by Swimming Parents” that looks to understand more about the experiences, challenges, and
coping strategies used by parents of youth swimmers. More specifically:
 We are looking to interview both parents of a child (interviewed separately) about their
experiences as a swimming parent, stress they may have encountered, and how they cope with
that stress.
 Have both parents complete a short questionnaire about their sporting history and that of the
family.
To Participate:
 Must have a child who is currently participating in club swimming and is highly committed
(practicing and competing regularly)
 Have both parents willing to take part in a short 45-60 minute interview and complete a short
questionnaire about their sporting history
 Participants will each receive a $15 gift card (Meijer or Amazon.com)
To find out more and get involved, please contact study investigator Ian Cowburn at 517-8976024 or cowburni@msu.edu.
This research is being conducted under the direction of Dr. Dan Gould (drgould@msu.edu),
Kinesiology Department, and has been reviewed and approved by the Michigan State University
Institutional Review Board.

217

APPENDIX B

DEMOGRAPHIC QUESTIONNAIRE

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Demographic Survey
Thank you for agreeing to participate in this study of the experiences of swimming parents. The
responses you provide to the questions below will allow us to understand more about you and your
family. Please complete the questions as accurately and as honestly as you can.
Parent
Name: _______________________________________ Date of Birth: _____________________
Sex:

___ Male

____ Female

Highest Level of Education Achieved:
___ High School Diploma

___ Community College

___ Undergraduate Degree

___ Graduate Degree

What is your Occupation? _______________________
Estimated Yearly Spend on Swimming (for your child/ren): ____________________
Estimated Yearly Spend on Other Sports and Activities (for your child/ren):_________________
Did you or do you currently participate in sport? ___ Yes

___ No

If Yes, in what sports did you or do you currently participate?
List all sports and indicate the highest level of participation:
Sport 1 ______________

Currently Participating ___ Yes ___ No

___ Recreational ___Travel/Club ___ High School ___ Collegiate ___ Professional
Sport 2 ______________

Currently Participating ___ Yes ___ No

___ Recreational ___Travel/Club ___ High School ___ Collegiate ___ Professional
Sport 3 ______________

Currently Participating ___ Yes ___ No

___ Recreational ___Travel/Club ___ High School ___ Collegiate ___ Professional
Sport 4 ______________

Currently Participating ___ Yes ___ No

___ Recreational ___Travel/Club ___ High School ___ Collegiate ___ Professional

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Family Information
Number of Children: _____
Child 1
Age: ______

Sex: ___ Male ____ Female

Is this child currently involved in swimming? ___ Yes ___ No
Was this child previously involved in swimming? ___ Yes ___ No
To what level? ___ Recreational ___Travel/Club ___ High School ___ Collegiate
Approximately how many months of the year does this child participate in swimming? ___ /12
If your child does / or has participating in swimming, please indicate the number of years and
months involved they have been / or were involved swimming: ___ Years ____ Months
Is or has this child been involved in other sport(s)? ___ Yes ___ No
If yes to the above question, please provide details about those sport(s):
Sport 1 ______________ Years of Participation ___ Currently Participating ___ Yes ___ No
Level: ___ Recreational ___Travel/Club ___ High School ___ Collegiate ___ Professional
Sport 2 ______________ Years of Participation ___ Currently Participating ___ Yes ___ No
Level: ___ Recreational ___Travel/Club ___ High School ___ Collegiate ___ Professional
Sport 3 ______________ Years of Participation ___ Currently Participating ___ Yes ___ No
Level: ___ Recreational ___Travel/Club ___ High School ___ Collegiate ___ Professional
Is or has this child been involved in any non-sport activities (e.g., music)? ___ Yes ___ No
If yes to the above question, please provide details about those activities, including indicating your
child’s level of ability compared to others that participate in the activity.
Activity 1 ______________ Years of Participation ___ Currently Participating ___ Yes ___ No
Level: ___ Top 25% ___ Middle 50% ___ Lower 25%
Activity 2 ______________ Years of Participation ___ Currently Participating ___ Yes ___ No
Level: ___ Top 25% ___ Middle 50% ___ Lower 25%
Activity 3 ______________ Years of Participation ___ Currently Participating ___ Yes ___ No
Level: ___ Top 25% ___ Middle 50% ___ Lower 25%
(Additional Pages as needed)
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Child 2
Age: ______

Sex: ___ Male ____ Female

Is this child currently involved in swimming? ___ Yes ___ No
Was this child previously involved in swimming? ___ Yes ___ No
To what level? ___ Recreational ___Travel/Club ___ High School ___ Collegiate
Approximately how many months of the year does this child participate in swimming? ___ /12
If your child does / or has participating in swimming, please indicate the number of years and
months involved they have been / or were involved swimming: ___ Years ____ Months
Is or has this child been involved in other sport(s)? ___ Yes ___ No
If yes to the above question, please provide details about those sport(s):
Sport 1 ______________ Years of Participation ___ Currently Participating ___ Yes ___ No
Level: ___ Recreational ___Travel/Club ___ High School ___ Collegiate ___ Professional
Sport 2 ______________ Years of Participation ___ Currently Participating ___ Yes ___ No
Level: ___ Recreational ___Travel/Club ___ High School ___ Collegiate ___ Professional
Sport 3 ______________ Years of Participation ___ Currently Participating ___ Yes ___ No
Level: ___ Recreational ___Travel/Club ___ High School ___ Collegiate ___ Professional
Is or has this child been involved in any non-sport activities (e.g., music)? ___ Yes ___ No
If yes to the above question, please provide details about those activities, including indicating your
child’s level of ability compared to others that participate in the activity.
Activity 1 ______________ Years of Participation ___ Currently Participating ___ Yes ___ No
Level: ___ Top 25% ___ Middle 50% ___ Lower 25%
Activity 2 ______________ Years of Participation ___ Currently Participating ___ Yes ___ No
Level: ___ Top 25% ___ Middle 50% ___ Lower 25%
Activity 3 ______________ Years of Participation ___ Currently Participating ___ Yes ___ No
Level: ___ Top 25% ___ Middle 50% ___ Lower 25%

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Child 3
Age: ______

Sex: ___ Male ____ Female

Is this child currently involved in swimming? ___ Yes ___ No
Was this child previously involved in swimming? ___ Yes ___ No
To what level? ___ Recreational ___Travel/Club ___ High School ___ Collegiate
Approximately how many months of the year does this child participate in swimming? ___ /12
If your child does / or has participating in swimming, please indicate the number of years and
months involved they have been / or were involved swimming: ___ Years ____ Months
Is or has this child been involved in other sport(s)? ___ Yes ___ No
If yes to the above question, please provide details about those sport(s):
Sport 1 ______________ Years of Participation ___ Currently Participating ___ Yes ___ No
Level: ___ Recreational ___Travel/Club ___ High School ___ Collegiate ___ Professional
Sport 2 ______________ Years of Participation ___ Currently Participating ___ Yes ___ No
Level: ___ Recreational ___Travel/Club ___ High School ___ Collegiate ___ Professional
Sport 3 ______________ Years of Participation ___ Currently Participating ___ Yes ___ No
Level: ___ Recreational ___Travel/Club ___ High School ___ Collegiate ___ Professional
Is or has this child been involved in any non-sport activities (e.g., music)? ___ Yes ___ No
If yes to the above question, please provide details about those activities, including indicating your
child’s level of ability compared to others that participate in the activity.
Activity 1 ______________ Years of Participation ___ Currently Participating ___ Yes ___ No
Level: ___ Top 25% ___ Middle 50% ___ Lower 25%
Activity 2 ______________ Years of Participation ___ Currently Participating ___ Yes ___ No
Level: ___ Top 25% ___ Middle 50% ___ Lower 25%
Activity 3 ______________ Years of Participation ___ Currently Participating ___ Yes ___ No
Level: ___ Top 25% ___ Middle 50% ___ Lower 25%

222

Child 4
Age: ______

Sex: ___ Male ____ Female

Is this child currently involved in swimming? ___ Yes ___ No
Was this child previously involved in swimming? ___ Yes ___ No
To what level? ___ Recreational ___Travel/Club ___ High School ___ Collegiate
Approximately how many months of the year does this child participate in swimming? ___ /12
If your child does / or has participating in swimming, please indicate the number of years and
months involved they have been / or were involved swimming: ___ Years ____ Months
Is or has this child been involved in other sport(s)? ___ Yes ___ No
If yes to the above question, please provide details about those sport(s):
Sport 1 ______________ Years of Participation ___ Currently Participating ___ Yes ___ No
Level: ___ Recreational ___Travel/Club ___ High School ___ Collegiate ___ Professional
Sport 2 ______________ Years of Participation ___ Currently Participating ___ Yes ___ No
Level: ___ Recreational ___Travel/Club ___ High School ___ Collegiate ___ Professional
Sport 3 ______________ Years of Participation ___ Currently Participating ___ Yes ___ No
Level: ___ Recreational ___Travel/Club ___ High School ___ Collegiate ___ Professional
Is or has this child been involved in any non-sport activities (e.g., music)? ___ Yes ___ No
If yes to the above question, please provide details about those activities, including indicating your
child’s level of ability compared to others that participate in the activity.
Activity 1 ______________ Years of Participation ___ Currently Participating ___ Yes ___ No
Level: ___ Top 25% ___ Middle 50% ___ Lower 25%
Activity 2 ______________ Years of Participation ___ Currently Participating ___ Yes ___ No
Level: ___ Top 25% ___ Middle 50% ___ Lower 25%
Activity 3 ______________ Years of Participation ___ Currently Participating ___ Yes ___ No
Level: ___ Top 25% ___ Middle 50% ___ Lower 25%

223

APPENDIX C

INTERVIEW GUIDE

224

Interview Guide
Good morning/afternoon/evening. I know we met during the recruiting process, but I’d like
to re-introduce myself, I’m Ian Cowburn, a final year doctoral student at Michigan State
University. I am here today to talk to you about what it is like to be a swimming parent, your
general experiences, the challenges and benefits you have encountered, and how you deal with
some of the challenges you face. I have some questions that I would like find out the answers to,
so I will be making notes and may ask you the same thing a couple of times in different ways to
make sure I have understood all that I can about your experiences. The purpose as I said is to
accurately capture your experiences, so please make your answers are as honest and detailed as
possible, as this will help me in understanding your experience. Of course, you retain the right to
not answer questions if you wish and to terminate the interview at any time, and your answers will
be kept confidential, including from your partner. Finally, you can ask questions of me at any time,
especially if you are not sure what I am asking.
(Demographic questionnaire should have been completed, have this available).
1. Can you tell me what it is like to be a swimming parent?
2. What are some benefits to being a swimming parent?


How did you become involved as a swimming parent?



What do you enjoy?



What has been the best thing about your involvement with swimming?



Why are those benefits?

3. Has being a swimming parent influence your family life (e.g., meal times, parenting, your
relationship with your spouse)?
4. What are some challenges about being a swimming parent?

225



What is it about that challenge that is particularly challenging and/or stressful for
you?



Specifically with regard to swimming – probe as appropriate: How about challenges
related to *insert category from below*?
i. Child development
ii. Coaches
iii. Other sport parents
iv. Organization (club)
v. Competition, and competitive success and failure
vi. Injuries



Outside of swimming, but influenced by involvement – probe as appropriate: How
about challenges such as *insert category from below*??
i. Time
ii. Work
iii. Finances
iv. Home relationships
v. Social life

5. Interviewer note: The following question relating to coping strategies is to follow each of
the mentioned challenges parents list. Ideally the question follows directly after a challenge
is mentioned, however, in the course of an interview and parents are in the flow of
describing challenges this may not be possible. However, the interviewer should endeavor to
discuss coping strategies used for each stressors as close to the description of the parent
challenge as possible and ensure all challenges are covered.

226

6. How do you manage the stress associated with [insert challenge/stressor here]?


“A coping strategy is any method you use to seal with a stressor to lessen its negative
impact. There are many different ways to cope, such as seeking support from your
partner, deliberate relaxation, or self-talk” (to be given to all parents so they
understand what coping strategies are, adapt from Gould, Finch, & Jackson, 1993).



I need to fully understand what it was about [strategy] that helped you cope with the
[challenge/stressor]. Can you please elaborate as to what it is that makes [insert
strategy] a coping strategy for you (adapted from Gould, Finch, & Jackson, 1993, p.
455)?



Does your partner help you manage the stress of this [insert challenge/stressor]?
a. How does your partner help? (If needed)



Are there any other coping strategies that you use that have not been discussed so far
that you use and would like to discuss?



Alternative wording for variety or to clarify: What strategies do you use to manage
the stress associated with [insert challenge/stressor here]?

7. What recommendations would you have for other swimming parents about dealing with
challenges that arise from having your child involved?


For managing the stress within yourself.



For helping your spouse.



For maintaining a good family life and marriage, while being a swimming parent

8. During the interview I have written a list of all challenges you have mentioned. Can you
take a look at the list and let me know if you agree with all the challenges listed? If there are
any that you think are missing, please write them in.

227



If the parent feels stressors need to be added, these will be discussed and coping
strategies discussed.

9. Now, can you please give each a score out of 10 for how stressful they currently are for you,
where 1 is not stressful at all and 10 is a very high level of stress?
10. Thank you for agreeing to this interview. As I move forward with the study I will be looking
for additional participants for the study. Can you think of any other swimming parents that
have a child who is similarly aged and as involved as your son/daughter that you think
might be helpful for my study?


If yes. Then the lead researcher will give the recruitment flyer to the current parent
participant and ask them to contact the lead researcher if they are interested in
participating.

As part of your participation in the study you will receive a $15 gift card to either Meijer or
Amazon.com, which of the two would you prefer? (Interviewer to retrieve contact details to
forward the gift card). Thank you very much for agreeing to participate in this study of swimming
parents. I thoroughly enjoyed talking with you and your contributions are will be very helpful to
the study.

228

APPENDIX D

SWIMMING CLUB PERMISSION LETTER

229

Swimming Club Permission Letter
Date: DATE

To:

Dan Gould, Ph.D.
Ian Cowburn B.Sc.
Michigan State University

From: NAME AND ORGANISATION NAME

By signing below, I indicate that the above researchers may attend our facility / practice sessions
to recruit parent participants for the research project “stressors experienced and coping strategies
used by swimming parents”.
Sincerely,

SIGNATURE

230

APPENDIX E

PARTICIPANT CONSENT FORM

231

Participant Consent Form
Michigan State University
Department of Kinesiology
You are being asked to participate in a research study. The researcher is required to provide a
consent form to inform you about the research study, to convey that participation is voluntary, to
explain risks and benefits of participation, and to empower you to make an informed decision. You
should feel free to ask the researcher any questions you may have.
You are being asked to participate in a study being conducted by Ian Cowburn, under the
supervision of Dr. Dan Gould, both from Michigan State University. Ian Cowburn is conducting
this study as part of his doctoral dissertation research and is performing this study as an
independent researcher with no preconceived expectation of obtaining certain patterns of results.
The purpose of the project is to learn more about the experiences of youth sport parents,
specifically those in swimming. In particular, the project wants to understand the challenges
swimming parent’s face, the coping strategies they potentially use to deal with those challenges,
and how parents use their partners to deal with challenges. You have been selected as a possible
participant in this study because you and your partner have a child who is highly involved in
competitive youth swimming in the mid-Michigan area. The research will be conducted to gain
insights into what challenges swimming parents face in having a child involved in competitive
youth swimming, how they potentially cope with those challenges, and how their partner helps
them with those challenges. Your participation in this study will involve participation in an
interview related to this research purpose.
If you agree to be in this study, you will be asked to complete a short demographic survey about
you and your family, and participate in a 45 to 60 minute interview. The survey will ask questions
pertaining to your sport participation history and the sport/non-sport participation of your
child(ren). The interview will be conducted in person, in a private and mutually convenient
location. I will ask you a few questions about your experiences as a swimming parent, what
challenges you face, how you cope with those challenges, and how your partner helps you with
those challenges. Additionally, your partner will take part in the same interview, at a different time
separate from yourself, in order to understand what challenges you experience and coping
strategies you use as a couple.
The data for this project will be kept confidential. The interview will be audio-recorded for
accuracy of recall, and then transcribed verbatim. The only access to the audio-recorded
interviews, transcripts, and subsequent analysis will be the research staff involved in the study and
the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at Michigan State University. The results of this study may
be published or presented at professional meetings. However, the identities of all research
participants will remain confidential.
Benefits and Risks of Participating
Your participation in this research study may contribute valuable information regarding the
stresses of being a youth sport parent, how parents cope, and contribute to the development of
future sport parent education programs. While the questions in this interview focus on your
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experience as a youth sport parent, there is a small potential that discussing your experiences may
create some discomfort for you. Additionally, you will be asked to discuss some of your opinions
regarding your partner, however, the content of your interview will remain confidential. These are
the only foreseeable risks associated with participation in this study.
Compensation
For completing this interview, you will receive a $15 Amazon.com e-Gift Card or a $15 Meijer
Gift Card (at your discretion) to compensate you for your time, delivered either by post (Meijer)
or e-mail (Amazon.com), within one week of completing your interview.
Participation is voluntary. Refusal to participate will involve no penalty from the investigators.
You may discontinue participation at any time without penalty. You have the right to say no to
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