The role of immigrant parents in children's sport development

Abstract

Parents take a powerful role to a child's sport socializing. Such roles of parents for children's sport are neither static nor constantly applied, depending on parents' cultural beliefs and values. An understanding of these dynamics is crucial for sport managers if they are to design and implement sport programs that can attract a culturally diverse group. A cross-cultural study investigated how Korean immigrant parents were different from American and Korean parents in terms of parents' influences on their children's sport participation. It was found that a parent's cultural model was a significant criterion that explained different degrees of practicing role mechanisms---parents as a provider and interpreter. Parents' acculturation accounted for the outcomes of Korean immigrants in the U.S. The in-depth interviews then explored how Korean immigrant parents supported children's sport according to their contexts and environments. It was found that they interacted with contextual factors such as family, neighborhood, school, sport organizations, work, policy and system, and cultures. These interactions were affected not only by surrounding contextual factors but also by their traditional customs and values. Being released from education fever, the Korean immigrant parents interacted more actively with the values and customs of American society. Thus, they generally implemented an American sport-friendly environment to make their children's sport happen and continue. This dissertation's combined studies demonstrate the crucial role of parents in children's sport and the effect of culture on shaping those roles. Finally, this dissertation helps build up an integrative paradigm of sport development toward expanding the field of sport participants. Culture is invisible but powerfully affects parenting. Sport parenting is a cultural product. Cultural differences are not easily bridged, though the key is in how we understand such differences.