Parent-created educational practices and conditions for players’ political socialisation in competitive youth games: a player perspective on parents’ behaviour in grassroots soccer.

Abstract

By recognising young athletes as active socialising agents in their own right and how they experience parents’ behaviour, the article contributes knowledge about parent-created educational practices and conditions for players’ political socialisation in competitive youth games in grassroots soccer. Parents play an important role in the creation of educational practices and the conditions for young people’s political socialisation in sport. Young people’s formation of political identities, values, attitudes and norms, their adaption to, learning about and sometimes changes in the political culture of a community are dimensions that have hitherto not been explored to any great extent in youth sport research. Three types of educational practices are identified in which the conditions for political socialisation are shown to be marked by social cohesion, security and respectability; group segregation, selfishness and manipulation; disrespect, hostility and blame.