Informant variance in perceptions of student-athlete/parent relationship qualities

ABSTRACT

A positive relationship with parents contributes to well-being during emerging adulthood, the developmental period that bridges adolescence and adulthood (Arnett, J. J. [2015]. Emerging adulthood: The winding road from the late teens through the twenties [2nd ed.]. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199795574.013.9). In this study, we investigated discrepancies between parent and emerging adult perceptions of relationship qualities within the context of intercollegiate sport. Parent and student-athlete reports of parental contact, parental support, academic engagement, and basic need satisfaction were compared to determine whether agreement existed. Results examining 50 parent/student-athlete dyads from a Division I institution completed online measures of relationship qualities. Results revealed minimal agreement across all measures (κ = −.10 to .12). Parents reported significantly higher levels of basic need satisfaction and academic engagement while student-athletes reported significantly higher levels of tangible parental support, providing evidence of the importance of the choice of informant when assessing parent/student-athlete relationships. These findings build a foundation for future work on how reporter differences are linked to student-athlete outcomes.

KEYWORDS:

• Basic need satisfaction
• emerging adulthood
• multiple informants
• reporter discrepancies
• parent-emerging adult dyads

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 There was no significant difference on any of the measures between student-athletes who provided and did not provide parent information, nor were there significant difference on any of the measures between student-athletes with a participating and non-participating parent.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported in part by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Any opinions, findings and conclusions are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NCAA.

Notes on contributors

Miranda P. Kaye

Dr. Miranda P. Kaye is a research faculty with the Social Science Research Institute at the Pennsylvania State University. Her research seeks to understand family relationships and parent-child interactions in relation to health and well-being with a particular focus on program implementation and evaluation.

Katie Lowe

Dr. Katie Lowe is an Independent Researcher in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her research broadly aims to understand the contribution of contextual and individual factors to youths' academic and developmental outcomes from adolescence to emerging adulthood, with a focus on how the contexts of school, family, and sport explain development to help inform programs supporting youth across these contexts.

Travis E. Dorsch

Dr. Travis E. Dorsch is an Associate Professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies and the Founding Director of the Families in Sport Lab at Utah State University. Dr. Dorsch's research is designed to understand the impact of parents' involvement in their children's sport participation, the role of sport participation on family relationships and parent-child interaction, and the outcomes of parent support and pressure in youth and adolescent sport contexts.