ABSTRACT
Parents play a pivotal role within the lives of young athletes. However, parenting young athletes can be extremely demanding, as parents often commit large amounts of time, money, and emotional energy to supporting their child. In this chapter, we seek to illustrate the importance of practitioners understanding the experiences of parents to facilitate their subsequent work with them. We review the literature examining parents’ experiences of youth sport and the potential factors impacting upon parental involvement. We then discuss strategies that we have used to work with parents in different situations within youth sport contexts. We conclude by sharing a number of ‘lessons learnt’ and suggestions to enhance the work that sport psychology practitioners conduct with parents of young athletes.
