ABSTRACT
Studies have highlighted the stressful nature of youth sport for parents and young athletes and the negative impact this can have on their experiences and involvement. However, there is growing evidence to suggest that stressful and adverse events have the potential to facilitate long-term growth. In this chapter, we explore the individual and shared stressors associated with youth sport participation for both young athletes and their parents. Following this, we adopt a dyadic perspective and review studies that have examined how parent–child interactions in youth sport contexts may act as a catalyst for growth and positively influence the broader parent–child relationship. Drawing upon this body of work, we offer a number of future recommendations targeted towards the need to understand how each of the aforementioned areas of research can be effectively integrated in order to advance research in this area. We conclude by highlighting the need for greater attention to be paid to the environmental contexts (e.g., supportive parent–child relationships) that are likely to promote positive change following stress or adversity within youth sport.
