Parental Behavior, Cognitive Appraisal, and Motivation in Young Athletes.

PURPOSE

This study tested two hypotheses relating young athletes' sports motivations to parental behaviors and cognitive appraisal: (1) young athletes' motivation in sports is related to their parents' behavior; and (2) this relationship is mediated by cognitive appraisal, even after controlling for competitive level and sports records.

METHOD

This cross-sectional study included 673 young athletes and it measured the athletes' perceptions of parental behaviors, cognitive appraisal, and sports motivation.

RESULTS

Structural equation modeling confirmed Hypothesis 1-the mother's behaviors accounted for 15 to 16% of the variance in sports motivation, and the father's behaviors accounted for 12 to 21% of the variance. The correlation patterns differed according to whether the athletes were evaluating the mother's or father's behaviors. Hypothesis 2 also was confirmed, for cognitive appraisal partially mediated the relationship between the perception of parental behaviors and sports motivation (34% of the variance was accounted for by the perception of the mother's behavior; 30% by the father's). The mediating model did not vary with competitive level or sports records.

CONCLUSION

Parental behaviors and cognitive appraisal need to be taken into account to understand young athletes' sports motivations.