SR276SMH – Parenting perfectionistic young people in sport

Parenting perfectionistic young people in sport

Project Lead: Sarah Mallinson-Howard

Student as Researchers: Jack Clifton, Martha Ash

This project concerned itself with perfectionism within sports and the role it can have on a young person engaging in sports; can it be beneficial, or a hindrance? This project wanted to delve deeper understanding and examine issues surrounding perfectionism and establish how parents can best support the involvement of perfectionistic young people in sport.

Students worked alongside an associate professor external to YSJ and helped create a database of research concerning parenting and perfectionism in and outside of sport; they also helped with the ethics and design questions for the interviews. While the project was waiting for ethical clearance, the students created a database of clubs and schools to prepare for participant recruitment for the project and started to draft materials for a parenting support leaflet.

Through this project, the students were able to attend and present at the Motivation, Performance and Well-being group seminars in the School of Sport. This project is still continuing into the second term and Sarah has recruitment more student researchers to help on the project.