INFLUÊNCIA PARENTAL NO DESENVOLVIMENTO DESPORTIVO: PERCEÇÕES E IMPACTOS NO DESEMPENHO DOS ATLETAS

Abstract

Sports practice is very important for an athlete's cognitive, motor, emotional and social development. For this practice to be positive, the athlete must have the necessary conditions such as financial, logistical and emotional support, often from their parents. It is therefore necessary to analyze and understand how this parental support and influence is transmitted and how parents perceive it. The aim of this dissertation was to analyze parental influence in sports' context, where in the first study, the relationships between perceptions of competence (self-perceptions and those reflected by the father and mother), the value given to sport, and the perception of the motivational climate initiated by parents were examined; and in the second study, to understand how communication patterns changed in more private contexts such as the car journey and the athletes' gender, and how they influenced the athletes' performance during training and matches. Using a quantitative methodology in the first study, and a qualitative methodology in the second study, questionnaires analyzing the variables under study were administered to 643 athletes (M = 13.4 ± DP = 1.28), which analyzed the variables under study, as well as semi-structured interviews with 8 athletes of both sexes (nfemale = 4) and each of their parents, in order to analyze the communication during car journeys, as well as the behavior during sporting contexts. The results showed how important it is for athletes to feel a positive motivational climate and reflected perception of competence, with a greater emphasis on enjoyment and learning, so that the perception of competence and value have higher scores. In addition, it was possible to see how parental communication is influenced by the context, where the car journey offers a private space where parents can motivate and address topics that they wouldn't discuss in public contexts, and that a positive perceived motivational climate improves the athletes' performance. It is important to develop research to expand knowledge of parental influence in the sports context in the long term, in more private contexts, as well as through technological devices, so that sports institutions and clubs can develop intervention plans and formations to raise awareness among parents, coaches and other social agents.