STAYING IN SPORT: BASIC PSYCHOLOGICAL NEEDS OF EARLY SPECIALIZED ATHLETES AND SPORTS PARENTING

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Beden Eğitimi ve Spor, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2022

Tezin Dili: İngilizce

Öğrenci: Ece İbanoğlu

Asıl Danışman (Eş Danışmanlı Tezler İçin): Sadettin Kirazcı

Eş Danışman: Olcay Yılmaz

Özet:

This study aims to understand the experiences of sports parents and early-specialized
athletes on how athletes' basic psychological needs (competence, autonomy, and
relatedness) relate to sports parenting during a sports career. Participants were eight
early-specialized athletes and 16 parents (eight mothers and eight fathers) from
individual and team sports. Having its foundations from phenomenology, semi-
structured interviews were used, and accordingly, data were analyzed with a
combined deductive and inductive thematic analysis. Results showed that sports
parenting is a critical issue in early specialized athletes' life because of its relationship
with athletes' basic psychological needs. Many sport-related decisions, such as sports
selection, are taken together within the family or guided by the parents. The study
indicated that athletes' autonomy (attitudinal, functional, and emotional),
competence (self-awareness, self-discipline, self-esteem, self-sacrifice for success and resilience), and relatedness (parent-athlete, club, coach-athlete, athlete-peer,
parent-parent, and coach-parent relations) features changed and reformed over time
possibly because of maturation of the athletes. Also, the combined factors (age-
related changes, dual career, and perceived optimal sports parenting) represented
critical milestones and expectations that activated at least two of the basic
psychological needs in youths' lives. It should be noted that creating an environment
where a child has the opportunity for optimal growth may have positive impact on
individual and add value to society over time. This study has a potential to be used in
designing structured guidelines and programs for sports parenting.