Examining the relationship between sport-based perfectionism and perceptions of parenting styles among male youth hockey players

摘要

In the past, most studies investigating parenting in youth sport have failed toinclude the athlete?s perspective and the possible influence his/her individualpersonality traits might have on those perceptions. This study addressed this concern byexamining whether perceptions of parenting styles differ in relation to youth athletes?perfectionist orientations. Given the multiple roles that parents play in their child?sathletic career, that sensitivity to parental expectations and criticism are centralcharacteristics of perfectionism, and that sport is an environment conducive to thedevelopment of perfectionist tendencies, the importance of parental criticism and praisemay be exaggerated in the case of perfectionist athletes. However, there are differentapproaches to the conceptualization of perfectionism (i.e., the categorical approach vs.the dimensional approach), with each leading to different predictions as to howperfectionists perceive significant others. Additionally, the only other study to examinethe association between perfectionism and parenting style within youth sport (i.e.,Sapieja, Dunn, & Holt, 2011) was limited in that it focused on only one of Baumrind?s(1991) three primary parenting styles and only sampled youth athletes from the sport ofsoccer. The present study took these points into account by a) using an analyticaltechnique (i.e., cluster analysis) that allowed for the consideration of both categoricaland dimensional approaches to perfectionism, b) assessing perceptions of Baumrind?sauthoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting styles, and c) examining ifSapieja et al.?s (2011) results generalize to athletes from the sport of ice hockey. A totalof 93 male youth hockey players (M age = 16.21 years; SD = 1.41) completed multiplemeasures of sport-based perfectionism and a measure of perception of parenting styles.Cluster analyses conducted on the self-report perfectionism data produced multiple cluster solutions. The final three-cluster solution was chosen based on fit indices andalignment with the dimensional approach to perfectionism. The three independentclusters were labelled high strivings-high concerns, moderate strivings-moderateconcerns, and moderate strivings-low concerns perfectionists. Inter-cluster comparisonsrevealed that high strivings-high concerns perfectionists perceived authoritarianparenting to a greater degree than moderate strivings-low concerns perfectionists. Highstrivings-high concerns perfectionists also perceived authoritative parenting to a greaterdegree than moderate strivings-moderate concerns perfectionists. When consideredalongside past research (e.g., Hewitt, Flett, & Singer, 1995; Kawamura, Frost, &Harmatz, 2002; Sapieja et al., 2011) these results suggest a complex relationshipbetween perfectionism and perceptions of parenting style among youth athletes. To addclarity to this relationship, future research should consider: incorporating theperspectives of female youth athletes, determining whether relationships differ whenperceptions of a single parent?s parenting style is considered, and investigating if resultsextend to perceptions of coaching style.