Family and Sport: Volume 19

Drawing on a larger study of coaches, parents, and children involved in nonelite sport in New Zealand, this chapter examines Jay Coakley's (2021) concept of the “Great Sport Myth” (GSM), whereby a strong belief in the innate purity and goodness of sport produces a reluctance to criticize it. This chapter emphasizes the developmental outcomes that parents and children believe are gained through sport and demonstrates the ways that parents relinquish control to coaches and reinforce the dominance of the coach as the decision-maker through their belief in the strength of the GSM. These findings are significant, given the large number of abuse cases that have come to light in sport in recent decades where the absence of parental intervention is marked. Not only are children socialized by their time in sport, but so too are parents, who are taught that they are “good” parents if they trust the work of the coach. The findings are also at odds with a prevailing neoliberal emphasis on individualization, especially in education policy and practice, where parents are more likely to intervene to assert the individualized needs of their children. This study is unique in addressing the relatively neglected experiences of those who play at the competitive, but not serious or elite, end of sport.

Recent research suggests positive links between adolescents' participation in sports and the quality of their relationships with their fathers. It is unclear, however, the degree to which the gendered nature of sports, and in particular the ways sports have been used to define and express masculinity, mean that these important links between sports participation and parent–child relationships might or might not extend to relationships with mothers. Recent scholarship connects joint recreational activities to mother–child relationships, but here we extend these ideas in connection to adolescents' formal sports participation. We use the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health from the United States to evaluate potential connections between adolescent sports participation and maternal relationships, focusing on the adolescent's perspective on joint activities with mother, closeness to and warmth and communication with mother, and satisfaction with the relationship with mother. We also examine whether these associations differ for boys and girls. We found that adolescents' sports participation was good for relationships with their mothers, but also that there were gender differences in how sport paid off for boys and girls. We discuss our findings in terms of contemporary shifts in gendered norms and conclude that gender may remain salient to how sports participation can promote mother–child relationships.

Significant research has shown that gender and social class relationships can be problematic within the context of water-based leisure activities such as surfing, windsurfing, and sailing (Olive et al., 2016; Wheaton, 2003). More specifically, it has been argued that sailing is traditionally practiced and dominated by upper-class males who can determine social codes that exclude and devalue others (Créac'h & Sébileau, 2004). We develop these critical ideas about broader water sport activity through the lens of family involvement within the context of an international comparative qualitative study of sailing projects based within secondary schooling sites in California and France. A key line of analysis involved investigating how various forms of capital (Bourdieu, 1979) were reproduced through gendered and social class hierarchies. We found that parents played key roles in reinforcing gendered stereotypes and divisions that were operating in youths' daily practices and competitions (middle school and high school). Additionally, our data show that sailing was regularly utilized by families to maintain upper-class values and distinctive social status (Friedman, 2013). Thirty interviews and 113 hours of field observations with stakeholders such as coaches, teachers, youths (14 to 17 years old), and their parents frame these various lines of analysis around sailing activity.

Throughout the world, women encounter strong patriarchal values that promote the virtue of women's chastity. Within numerous conservative societies, such as certain regions of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the intactness of the hymen in a young woman is viewed as emblematic of her dignity, righteousness, and pride. Participants in our investigations highlighted that hymen rupture stigma remains prevalent in many parts of Pakistan, often leading to social consequences or disapproval of women who want to participate in sports. Additionally, participants disclosed that some women had internalized the hymen rupture stigma, and families might reinforce it. This chapter contributes to the limited scholarship concerning how social norms, hymen rupture stigma, and family values influence Muslim women's participation or lack of participation in sports in Pakistan.

This qualitative study focused on how girls' high school coaches in the United States Southwest thought about Latina teens' participation in school sports. Semi-structured interviews with coaches (4 women, 11 men) indicated they continue to rely on cultural (deficit) discourses implicating girls' families and culture when discussing Latina teens' sports participation. Coaches suggested that Latina teens' parents do not see the value of sports for girls, do not view sports as a pathway to college, are not involved or interested in their daughters' participation for cultural reasons, and are overly productive. These conceptualizations shape coaches' recruitment and pedagogical strategies within school sports contexts. More critical reflections could aid coaches and schools in developing more adaptive school contexts and strategies to better meet the needs of Latina teens and their families.

This chapter examines changes in Nigerian family roles because of the gap that exists in communication between left-at-home footballers' wives and their absentee husbands who are working at significant distances from their families' permanent residence. Based on a study of 12 football (i.e., soccer) players in the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) and contextualized within the field of sport labor, the study adds knowledge about the impact of footballer migration on left-behind families. The interview data produced five major themes: long-distance marital communication, effects of a paternalistic family culture, extended family issues, effects of father's absence on children, and effects of loneliness and loss of intimacy on wives. The results demonstrate changing roles among the married couples and extended families who were investigated in this study, perhaps indicating what is happening among similar families in Nigeria. It is notable that although the demands of professional football create this impact on families, there is considerable cultural resistance to role changes, because these changes grant the women new and possibly unexpected roles and increased domestic power. Their husbands, despite being away from home, appear to resist these changes and struggle to assert traditional power from afar. In many cases, the women expertly maneuver around this struggle and, in cases where disagreements emerge, they often use effective strategies to resolve problems and maintain a united family.

This chapter focuses on a population that I call iron moms: women who negotiate work, family, and endurance sport identities. This research sheds light on how mothers with families, full-time jobs, and other responsibilities fit a high level of endurance training into their lives. Looking at endurance sport through the lens of gender and parenthood helps uncover the unique complexities that iron moms face juggling their multiple identities. Included is an assessment of how iron moms manage their status on the athletic visibility continuum as a process associated with identity construction and maintenance. Based on an analysis of in-depth interviews with 20 active iron mom competitors and textual analysis of triathlon blog postings, this work uncovers the details of how these women attempt to find satisfaction in multiple areas of their lives. This chapter suggests that navigating one's status on the athletic visibility continuum in addition to navigating the complex web of dominant social discourses surrounding motherhood play a critical role in shaping how women craft their existence as an iron mom. Findings stress the value of “me time,” the pervasiveness of “mom guilt,” and the importance of reframing dominant discourses about motherhood.

Mothers play important roles in their families' lives. When they are high performance athletes, they need specific supports that will enable them to excel in their roles as mother athletes. The feminist qualitative research in this chapter is based on data from two studies drawn from semi-structured interviews with elite female distance runners: 14 in 2013–2014 and 11 in 2021. We address two questions: (1) what are the considerations that elite female distance runners make around planning their pregnancy(ies) and family lives? and (2) how have experiences shifted between athlete interviews in 2013–2014 and a new cohort of athletes in 2021? In order to address these questions, we drew on three complementary theoretical approaches: liberal feminism, radical feminism, and strategic essentialism. Further, we then used thematic analysis and generated three broader themes about elite female distance runners that aligned with both cohorts of athletes. First, athletes are forced to plan/strategize their pregnancies around finances, competitions, contracts, and spousal supports due to the lack of support from athletic governing bodies or corporate sponsors. Second, female athletes who choose to have children experience stress and uncertainty in their athletic careers that their male counterparts do not. Third, elite female athletes are demanding that further change occur to address these inequalities, and participants offered a number of potential solutions to improve supports for these athletes. Although solid progress has been noted in the timeframes of our two cohorts, further commitment from athletic governing bodies and corporate sponsors is needed to work toward gender equity in athletics.