Abstract
The quality of parental support may have an influence on children's sporting experiences and, consequently, the outcomes derived from sport participation (Harwood et al., 2019). While it is essential for parents to support their children for success in sport, being a sport parent is no easy task. Sport parenting expertise requires a range of intrapersonal, interpersonal, and organizational skills (Harwood & Knight, 2015). As such, knowledge dissemination efforts may prove crucial in helping to educate sport parents in developing these abilities. With the increasing access and reliance on the internet, disseminating knowledge online might be a promising alternative for supporting sport parents. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the content and technical quality of web-based resources available to sport parents and provide recommendations for resource developers and organizations. A comprehensive internet search for educational resources for sport parents was conducted. Resources were assessed based on their content (e.g., aligned with evidence-based practices) and technical quality using the Journal of the American Medical Association benchmarks (Silberg et al., 1997). The results indicated that there are many open-access resources available to sport parents stemming from an array of sources (e.g., sport, family, health-based) which may provide different, yet complementary perspectives on parental involvement in youth sport. While these resources were mainly aligned with recent evidence-based practices, there was considerable variability in terms of technical quality. The current findings may inform resource developers and organizations about important information to include when disseminating content for sport parents that support positive youth experiences.
