"Supporting my daughter, the best way I can”: Parental support in youth golf

Burgess et al. (2016) emphasized the importance of parental support in youth sports as they provide financial, informational, and emotional support to the youth-athlete. Parents also play a “significant role in shaping youth sport experiences” (Sheridan et al., 2014, p. 198). Research around parental support has been conducted in sports such as tennis, gymnastics, and football. The aim of the present study was to examine the parents’ perspective of parental support in female youth golf, exploring how they support their female youth golfers, and if the support changes through their child’s development. Twenty-two semi structured interviews were conducted with parents (14 fathers, 10 mothers) of high-performance female golfers in the specializing or investment stages of Côté’s (1999) DMSP. Participants were recruited from six countries (England, Ireland, Scotland, New Zealand, Australia, Canada). Using thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2012) six higher order themes were identified, namely, parental support: emotional, practical, technical, financial, organizational, and reflective support. The results align with the grounded theory of parental support (Burke et al., 2023a) providing an insight into the parents’ perspective of providing support aligning with informational, emotional, and instrumental support of the theory. Furthermore, the current research presented novel findings regarding reflective support that parents provide. Findings highlighted that parental support changed depending on temporal differences (place in the golf season) and their daughter’s development. The present research reinforces the need to provide support programs for parents based on their needs, rather than programs designed from a governing body or coaches perspective. Lay summary: Parents perspective of parental support and associated temporal changes were explored in female youth golf. Six themes of support were identified: emotional, practical, technical, financial, organizational, and reflective support. Changes in parental support were dependent on their daughter’s development (level of maturity or level of play) and the time of year differences.