“The Credit Card or the Taxi”: A Qualitative Investigation of Parent Involvement in Indoor Competition Climbing

Abstract

Parent involvement provides one lens through which the emotional, physical, and financial effects of youth sports may be understood. To examine parent involvement in the context of an emerging alternative youth sport, four focus groups were conducted with 27 parents of youth athletes involved in indoor competition climbing. Constructed themes, affirmed through a synthesized member-checking process, highlighted characteristics of parent involvement in indoor competition climbing and factors influencing youth and parent exposure to, and ongoing engagement in, the sport. Key findings highlight types of parent involvement (i.e., logistical and financial support, volunteerism, excessive involvement), facilitators of parent involvement (i.e., sense of parent community), and constraints to parent involvement (i.e., financial expense, travel). Future research is suggested to better understand the negotiation of distance constraints, parent education and support programs, and the expression of overparenting behaviors within indoor competition climbing settings.

Keywords:

• constraints
• overparenting
• parent involvement
• youth sport

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported in part by USA Climbing. The contents of this article are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official views of USA Climbing. USA Climbing had no involvement in the study design, analysis of data, or the development of this manuscript.