Rounding the bases with a secure base

ABSTRACT

Parental availability and responsiveness were experimentally manipulated to determine the effects on children’s athletic performance. Fifty children (3–12-year-olds) ran as fast as possible around a softball diamond twice: once while parents were available and responsive and once while parents were unavailable and unresponsive (engrossed in mobile phone; order randomized and counterbalanced). Children ran about three seconds faster and were 17% less likely to trip, fall, or false start in the parental available and responsive condition. In addition, during only the available and responsive condition in which parents were instructed to watch their child and respond as they normally would, children ran faster as their parents’ sensitivity increased. Similarly, children ran faster as parents’ harshness decreased.

KEYWORDS:

• Attachment
• parental responsiveness
• parental availability
• athletics
• secure base provision

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.