Parental Affect on Childhood Sports
...chairperson for the Canadian Hockey Association, said “Parents have been identified as one of the factors that can make the game fun for young kids, but pressure from parents is also one of the factors that make kids leave the game”(Bender). The pressure is not just in sports. A recent study showed that parents who not only require stellar performance in school for the children but are never satisfied with the performance cause their children to be more likely to have suicidal thoughts (Ascribe). Too much pressure is bad involvement. Another type of involvement that parents might take is talking to the officials, the coach, or members of the other team. This can be good if it is done in good sportsmanship. However, this can lead to an embarrassment for the children of the parents that are doing the talking or sometimes yelling. Some places have shown an increase of unsportsmanlike conduct by parents, some even having causes assault by the parents. 15 to 20 cases of assault have been handled by the Virginia Youth Soccer Association in the last 3 years (Stewart). Another specific incident was in Cleveland, a father punched a 15-year old boy during a soccer game because he felt he pushed around his son (Stewart). This could possibly explain why some of these kids have quit and why parents that get involved have received a bad reputation. Some places tried to do something about the poor sportsmanship of parents. Jeff Leslie, president of the non-profit Jupiter Tequesta Athletic Association in Jupiter, Florida, after seeing and hearing about several incidents of bad parental behavior made a rule requiring parents that sign their kids up for youth athletics to attend a sportsmanship class and sign a 11-point code of ethics. Leslie said “We had incidents of kids crying and breaking down, and we were concerned because we felt it was brought on by their parents” (Stewart). Maybe more places will apply this policy to promote positive parental involvement. This could also be used in even high school sports. Many places let parents put pressure on schools about the coaches, their tactics, and kids’ playing time. This sometimes causes coaches to lose their jobs (Ledin). This does not mean that all parental involvement negative or bad. Parental involvement is probably the greatest thing in the world for a child. There are endless benefits of kids being involved in sports. They make many new friends, it gets them outdoors, they receive exercise because of it, and children who have regular physical activity are likely to continue to have regular physical activity as an adult. This means that they are not as likely to have many health problems as adults, like diabetes, obesity, and heart disease (pediatric). These children would n...