Abstract
The family plays a central role in children’s sport experiences and outcomes. Parents, in particular, are instrumental in facilitating their children’s participation by providing necessary resources, fostering psychosocial development, and serving as a primary source of emotional support. Sport is often emotionally charged, and parents strongly influence how their children develop, process, and regulate emotions. However, much of the sport parenting literature in this area has focused on specific parent behaviours within the sport context, with less attention given to the broader family context. The purpose of this study was to investigate how the family context was perceived to influence athletes’ emotional experiences in sport. Using interpretive description methodology (Thorne, 2016), we conducted semi structured interviews with 10 collegiate student-athletes (6 women, 4 men, Mage = 20.5, SD = 1.84) to discuss their emotionally significant sport experiences, describe their past and present family dynamics, and share their perceptions of how their parents shaped their emotions in sport. Our findings were organized around the overarching conceptual insight of ‘the family emotional sport climate’, which captured four main themes: parental expectations for sport, observing emotional expression in the family, emotion-coaching from parents and siblings, and cultural and religious norms and expectations. These findings highlight the complex ways in which family may shape athletes’ emotional development and socialization, offering insights that may inform future theoretical approaches. Sibling and religious influences stood out as particularly impactful, suggesting the need for future work in these areas.
