Parents of Snow Sports New Zealand Athletes’ Perceptions of the Developmental Environment: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Parents provide moral and emotional support for their children in high performance sport. This support can be hindered by the stressors parents face, in particular, organisational stressors, when children start specialising and investing more time in their chosen sport.

This qualitative research study explores Parents of Snow Sports New Zealand (SSNZ) athletes’ perceptions of the developmental environment and how this perceived environment affects the way parents support their children. There has been increased media attention on the well-being of high performance athletes in New Zealand, while there has been no research exploring parents’ perceptions of their children’s developmental environment at SSNZ or in any other High Performance Sport New Zealand (HPSNZ) organisation.

The participants in this study were 16 parents of existing and past SSNZ athletes who had been selected on to the SSNZ High Performance Pathway between 2015 and 2022, having received varied access to world-class coaching and performance support dependent on their level in the pathway.

Evidence was gathered via one focus group and the remaining from one-to-one interviews. Using reflexive thematic analysis, one overarching theme and three dominant themes were identified to summarise parents’ perceptions; 1) SSNZ lack understanding of the importance of shared values and beliefs between parent and organisation in the developmental environment; 2) SSNZ athlete centred approach lacks developmental appropriateness; 3) Parents Lack Agency in SSNZ; 4) SSNZ is overwhelmed by rapid growth and success. This research showed that SSNZ does not always recognise the value of involving parents. Parents are well aware of the importance of considering a child’s developmental stage and their individual needs, accordingly, which they perceive is not always occurring at SSNZ. Participants suggested they lack the power and platform to influence change in the developmental environment and crave a sense of belonging and inclusion in the team. Parents in this research held concerns about the ensuing effects of an organisation overwhelmed by rapid growth and success.

Parent support of their children was affected by the stressors of balancing the responsibilities and demands of family, work, school and location. While some of the SSNZ organisational stressors experienced, contributed to challenges for parents with funding, family commitments and travel planning, while heartache was felt watching their children in times of adversity.

Parents perceived, by building trusting parent-organisation relationships with transparency and clarity in communication, alongside open exchange of, crucial holistic knowledge of their child and values and beliefs, this will ultimately benefit the well –being and performance of athletes and achieve an athlete centred approach at SSNZ, in line with their Developmental framework model.