Children & sports : how parents and the environment parents create lead children to pursue athletic achievement

Abstract

This study investigates parental influence on children's advancement to higher levels of competition (i.e. older age group intramural and club leagues, high school level, collegiate level, professional, etc.) in sport participation. Much past research has been conducted on parental influence, but this study furthered the research by more directly addressing television's role in parental influence among children in school grades four-six. Results indicate that a noticeable amount of parents, regardless of their personal knowledge of sport, often use TV as a teaching tool to help their children advance through their sport experiences.