Youth sports can create a positive, learning environment for children, but sometimes that positive environment can turn to a negative, humiliating environment. This negative environment quite often leads to "burnout, drop out, overuse injuries, cheating, violence, over-scheduling, inequalities, inadequately trained coaches, parental over/under involvement, oversight and policy issues"(LaVoi, 2008, p.14). The negative environment is often created by overbearing parents and coaches. Parents aren't educated and often don't know how their children want them to act. Parents focus on the 'winning' aspect of the game and forget that their children are in it for fun and enjoyment.
Children often find what their parents are doing to be distracting, embarrassing, and sometimes humiliating. Of 340 youth soccer parents surveyed, over half said they were angry with their child's game and took the anger out with aggression (Omli, 2008, p.31). Over 170 parents said that they used aggression when they were upset with their child's game. I find this to be a staggering number that can't be explained away by lack of education. Parents are responsible for their actions; yelling at the referees, using foul language, encouraging cheating are all unexplainable actions. Allowing your own emotions to get out of control to the point where you are physically angry is immature.
I believe the PLAYS program is an excellent way to help parents see and understand how their children feel. And if parents do have that strong bond that was talked about in the article "Towards an Understanding of Parent Spectator Behavior at Youth Sport Events" then parents should take that bond and respect it and their children's desires. The KIDS SPEAK project finding out how kids feel about their parents acting inappropriately and how the kids would like their parents to act is an extremely unique tool. This allows for parents to understand how their actions affect their children and what they as parents can do to help make their child's experience better.
I recently watched a high school basketball game back home in Wisconsin, and was shocked to see how parents reacted. I was usually down on the floor, but having the experience of sitting in the stands was appalling to me. One mother was yelling at the players what a coach would be telling them. She would get up on her feet just to yell at the players and even the referees. Watching this I wanted to video tape her and show her how ridiculous she looked. I don't understand how someone can get so into a game they lose their voice over when it is a clear-cut win for the team. These two articles let me understand to a point why the mom may have done this, but to what point will these parents go? Parent's killing people over a sporting event has taken sport aggression to a whole new level. Overall, I feel that many parents need to take a step back and really think about how their child feels when they play the game and how their child feels when the parent lets their emotions get out of control.
Omli, J., LaVoi, N.M., Wiese-Bjornstal, D. (2008). Towards an understanding of parent spectator
behavior at youth sport events. Journal of Youth Sports,3(2), 30-33.
LaVoi, N.M., Omli, J., Wiese-Bjornstal, D. (2008). Minnesota PLAYS™ (Parents Learning
About Youth Sports): A research based parent education solution.Journal of Youth Sports,
3(2), 14-16.
Molly Augustine
