Parental involvement in youth sports: historical trends and links to generational, socioeconomic status, sport culture, and youth sport commitment contexts

Abstract

Using data from the National Sports and Society Survey (N = 3,993) and multiple regression analyses, this study examined parents’ involvement in their children’s youth sports participation activities. We considered historical trends in parents’ attendance at their children’s sporting events, time spent otherwise supporting their children’s youth sports endeavours, and the amount of money that families allocate to their children’s sports activities. We found generational, socioeconomic status, family and community sport culture, and youth sport commitment associations with parents’ involvement patterns. Parents’ involvement generally increased across generations, became more differentiated by family socioeconomic status, and was largely connected to sport cultures and children’s sports commitments, of course. Patterns were largely similar for parents’ frequencies of attendance at their children’s sporting events, parents’ frequencies of support for their children’s sports participation, and family expenditures on their children’s sports participation.