Motivation In Sport: Relationships With Peers And Parents

Parents, friends, and the peer group are the fundamental contributors to motivational outcomes of the young athletes, providing unique influences on their psychological development (Brustad & Partridge, 2002; Sullivan, 1953).Weinberg and Gould (2007) also emphasize the importance of friends and peer group and the effects they have on child’s motivation. According to them, with affiliation being a main motive of child’s sport participation, positive peer relationships leads to positive motivational outcome variables. Parents’ attitude and peer relationships are associated with the self-perception of ability, self-esteem, attraction to sport, physical activity behaviour and motivation (Weinberg & Gould, 2007; Brustad et al., 2001).In accordance with this, Gauze(1996) and colleagues postulated, if one of family or the peer system does not work proper, the child will try to find support in the other one, which will have more importance and will influence the child perception about himself and about sport (You mean that say if parents doesn’t support much then the child will go more towards his peers ? right ?). Therefore, an appropriate collaboration and combination of these two is required. The two articles chosen for the review make ample description of these social influences and the way they act, independently or in combination, on the child’s behaviour and perceptions. Smith and Ullrich-French (2006) showed that relationship with parents and peers determine the child’s enjoyment, stress, perceived competence and motivation. Later, Smith, Ullrich-French, Walker, and Hurley (2006) showed that there is a finite number of peer relationship profiles, differentiated by the youth’s perceptions of friendship quality, friendship conflict and peer acceptance, and demonstrated that these profiles are motivationally salient in sport.

Smith A. L. and Ullrich-French S. (2006) Perceptions of relationships with parents and peers in youth sport: Independent and combined prediction of motivational outcomes. Psychology of Sport and Exercise 7 193-214

Positive perceptions of parent-child relationship quality, friendship relationship quality and peer acceptance are associated with higher enjoyment, perceived competence, self-determined motivation and lower stress. Many researchers such as Weiss, Anderson and Weinberg consider that parents and peers physical activity behaviour and support can have a highly positive or a highly negative effect on children’s physical activity level and sport experience that can produce, in time, positive or negative motivational outcomes. Smith and Ullrich-French explains how young athletes’ perceptions of their relationship with parents and peers, independently or in combination, predict motivational outcomes. Youth soccer athletes of 8 to 10 years old were asked questions about their perceptions of their parent-child relationship quality, friendship quality, and peer acceptance relative to the soccer context, as well as soccer-related motivational outcomes: enjoyment, stress, perceived competence, and self-determined motivation. The results showed that, generally, the participants felt accepted by their group, and had a positive perception of the relationship with parents and their best friend, the conflict being low with the best friend and moderate with the parents. More positive motivational outcomes were predicted by more positive perceptions of social relationships. Highly social relationships in combination were positively associated with enjoyment and perceived competence. Lower stress was the outcome of the higher peer acceptance and the positive father-child relationship, variables which in association with friendship quality or mother-child relationship quality result in a higher self-determined motivation. Thus the findings suggest that parents and peers influence self-determined motivation of the young athletes. The sport context can be stressful due to its public nature, so the social support is essential for the stress reduction. Friendship quality does not have a primary role, but it is supporting other positive relationships in the motivational outcomes’ prediction. In conclusion, the social relationship-motivation linkage’s full understanding requires the consideration of all combinations of parent, peer group, and friendship relationships.

Smith A. L. , Ullrich-French S. , Walker E. , and Hurley K. S. (2006) Peer Relationship Profiles and Motivation in Youth Sport. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology 28 362-382

Friends and peer group are developmentally crucial social agents in late childhood and early adolescence. As researchers claim, friendship, defined as a mutual, close, dyadic relationship, is a key sport participation motive, with social recognition of competence and perceived competence being closely connected with enjoyment. Smith and colleagues aim to determine peer relationship profiles and to show how motivation-related variables in young athletes are being influenced by the combination of the peer and friendship relationship perception. Youth sport camp participants aged 10 to 14 took part in the experiment, which contained questions designed for the measurement of perceived friendship quality, perceived peer acceptance, perceived competence, enjoyment, anxiety, self-presentational concerns, and self-determined motivation. The motivational salience of peer relationship profiles was examined in correspondence with positive friendship quality, friendship conflict, and peer acceptance perceptions. The youth in the more adaptive peer relationship profile groups possess considerably higher perceived sport competence, higher enjoyment, less competitive anxiety and less self-presentational concerns than the youth in isolated (I did not understand -survive) groups. Therefore, those who comprehend more positive peer relationships possess more adaptive sport motivation. In the lump, the study suggests that young athletes’ perceptions of their peer relationship determines a set of profiles motivationally salient, and highlights the importance of assessing combinations of relationship variables in the examination of the social influence in sport.

Bringing together the findings of these two studies, we can conclude that social motivation in youth sport has a highly significant influence on the competence of young athletes. The research results are supported by earlier studies, concluding that social relationship can contribute to desirable or undesirable behaviour and performance outcome. According to Sullivan, ‘the good friendship can amortize the poor peer acceptance and its negative psychological effects’. Adults’ social disapproval leads to the persistent need for external approval, lower perception of competence and control, and lower intrinsic motivation. Therefore, ‘children with low perceptions of their athletic abilities do not participate in sport, or they drop out, whereas children with high perceptions of their competence participate and persist’ (Weinberg & Gould, 2007).Although all these researches insist that the peers and parents’ support develop growth and well-being, there remains a lot of scope for developing strategies for the actual application of these findings for enhancing social relationships and help the youths succeed in sport, in self-being and, in conclusion, in society.