Young Athletes’ Parents as Part of Sports Audience

Preliminary communication

Abstract

Physical activity is exceptionally significant for a child’s regular growth and development and it should be practiced from the earliest age. The importance of physical activity is further accentuated in modern society’s living conditions. Technology is becoming increasingly present and children’s movement is brought to a minimum. Therefore, children are included in the system of sport, where competition occupies a central role. Parents frequently attend children’s training and competitions. The goal of this paper was to determine the influence of parents as part of the sports audience on children who practice sport. The authors wanted to ascertain the extent to which parents arrive at their child’s training and matches in order to provide support, in what measure they interfere with the coach’s work in training and matches and whether they punish their child if it makes a mistake in a competition. Also, one of the tasks was to determine parents’ opinion on whether insulting referees from the stands is a form of violence and to establish to what extent they give themselves the right to argue with referees during a children’s game. Two hundred and fiftyf ive parents of children from five different sports, all of whom completed a survey, participated in the research. It was established that parents, in large part, interfere with the coach’s work during training and matches, despite most of them replying that the coach is competent to do his job in a satisfactory manner. Regarding pressure that is put on children, a small percentage of parents punish their child if it makes a mistake. What should be a cause for concern is the reply of a large number of parents that insulting referees is not a form of violence and that they consider it a normal phenomenon, as well as the fact that one-third of the respondents had witnessed an argument between parents of opposing teams at the stands, an occurrence which is, unfortunately, becoming increasingly present at children competitions.