Competitive youth athletes: how do their families prioritize faith development while participating in sports?

ABSTRACT

Parent-child relationships can be strengthened by the increased time spent together due to youth sport involvement. The time demands, however, require families to skip religious services. The intent of this qualitative study was to explore how Christian families with competitive youth athletes promote faith development. Fifteen families across the United States were interviewed to gather data related to the level of church and sport involvement as well as behaviours related to faith development. The results suggest families strategically find ways to remain involved in church, integrate their faith into daily life, and identify ways to develop character in sports.

KEYWORDS:

• Families
• youth athletes
• faith development

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Azusa Pacific University Faith Integration Grant.

Notes on contributors

Jennifer Livingston

Dr. Jennifer Livingston is a Professor in the Department of Kinesiology at Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, CA, USA.  Her research interests include youth sports, sports medicine, and student success.