The experiences of parents in elite sports culture can be a very volatile one. The nature of the relationship between coach, athlete, and parent varies, and the experience for parents can be an emotional rollercoaster.
These were some of the observations made by scholars Gretchen Kerr and Patricia Lally while researching the interaction between athletes, parents, and coaches. On February 21, Kerr talked about the pair’s study in a seminar at U of T’s Benson Building. The seminar presentation was called “Joy and Sadness in Youth & Elite Sport: The Experience of Parents.”
“Much of the study began in the field,” Kerr said at the beginning of the lecture.
Kerr used the term “working backwards” to signify that the research question had its origins in fieldwork, rather than through theory, as is standard for most academic studies.
Kerr is an Associate Dean of the Faculty of Physical Education and Health (FPEH). She also serves as a harassment officer for Gymnastics Canada, a duty that requires active engagement with issues of ethics in sports and dealing with constant emotion from those who are involved in gymnastics.
Kerr explained the research method she and Lally used: six youth athletes and six parents (one parent for each athlete) were asked to elaborate on their experiences with gymnastics in face-to-face interviews. The gymnasts-all female-had varying levels of success in the sport.
Three of the girls made the Canadian national team, three of them made the Olympic roster. All the gymnasts had been retired from competition for several years, and they all came from two-parent households.
Organizing the findings into pre-retirement and post-retirement periods, the findings turned out to be enlightening.
The pre-retirement experience for a parent was based around three areas for Kerr.
First, the role of the parent became more important in terms of financial and emotional support at this time. Second, concern and anxiety for parents rose monumentally when it came to fears of injury and pain; some parents said that they felt “helpless” when it came to this fear.
Third, familial, personal, and professional relationships changed greatly during the pre-retirement stage: there were feelings of unity and joy at some points, and great stress and sorrow at other times.
The post-retirement period also consisted of this same dynamic. After retiring from the sport, positive patterns in terms of family relationships grew for these athletes and parents; however, parents harboured lingering doubts about how the athlete would handle retirment and cope with life afterwards.
Kerr and Lally reported that many parents worried about the physical condition of their children after they stopped competing. There were also concerns from the adults that these former gymnasts may not have adequate social skills to fit into mainstream society.
The results of the interviews led Kerr and Lally to research possible ways to better socialize parents into sport culture to alleviate these concerns. Kerr prescribed supporting and strengthening the “Athletic Triangle”-the relationship between athletes, parents, and coaches- as the most effective means of improving the experiences of adults and their athletic offspring in the future.
The information presented, as eye-opening as it was, was met with a good share of criticism. Many of the limitations of the study were presented by Kerr and discussed with attendees of the seminar.
“This was really more a retrospective study to begin with,” said the associate dean.
She also conceded that many of the interview subjects were from similar backgrounds and not an accurate sample of the variety that exists in gymnastics. She also noted that perceptions of the subjects could have been altered after disengagement, a time when negative or positive experiences can appear different in hindsight.
She also noted that the study was restricted to one particular sport, and only examined the experiences of one gender.
Further theoretical development in this field requires a diverse cross-section of experiences in order to better understand the topic. Regardless of its limits, the study is remarkable in the leaps it makes to better understand the challenge rooted in these athletic experiences.
