Family Socialization, Gender, and Sport Motivation and Involvement

This study uses analytic techniques to test the hypothesis that role modeling, parents’ beliefs, and the provision of experiences for the child are related to children’s perceptions of sport competence, value, and participation. Mothers and fathers and their 2nd-, 3rd-, and 5th-grade children responded to questionnaires. These 3 cohorts of children were followed for 1 year. Mothers and fathers were gender stereotyped in their beliefs and practices. Regression analyses revealed that parents’ perceptions of their children’s ability had the strongest unique relationship with children’s beliefs and participation both concurrently and over time. The results of the pattern-centered analyses demonstrated that the full set of parent socialization factors had an additive positive association with children’s outcomes.