Understanding how family structure and context influence a family’s resilience, youth sport involvement, stress, and well-being

Farr, Jeffrey Robert

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/113791 Copy

Description

Title

Understanding how family structure and context influence a family’s resilience, youth sport involvement, stress, and well-being

Author(s)

Farr, Jeffrey Robert

Issue Date

2021-07-19

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Green, B. C.

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Woolf, Julian R.

Committee Member(s)

• Ebata, Aaron
• Liechty, Toni
• Welty Peachey, Jon

Department of Study

Recreation, Sport and Tourism

Discipline

Recreation, Sport, and Tourism

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• Youth sport
• Family resilience
• Family structure
• Family context
• Sport involvement

Abstract

Youth sport is viewed by many parents as a developmental context in which they can provide their children with safe, controlled opportunities for socialization, physical and emotional skill development, and social mobility, and generation of individual resilience (e.g., White & Bennie, 2015). However, not all outcomes associated with involvement in youth sport for individuals or families are positive (Erdal, 2018). Involvement in youth sport has been shown to reduce the quality of marital (Lally & Kerr, 2008), parent-child (Coakley, 1992), and sibling relationships (Côté, 1999), and increased demands required for participation can reduce opportunities for family quality time (Bean et al., 2014) among other outcomes. Negative family outcomes are also believed to be more detrimental to families with limited access to resources and opportunities, especially for families with contextual limitations due to their SES and family structure (McMillan et al., 2016). The purpose of this quantitative study was to gain an understanding about the relationship between family youth sport involvement and family resilience, with a focus on understanding how this relationship differs for families with differing structures and contexts. To measure the relationship between youth sport participation and family resilience, a quantitative study was conducted measuring a family’s resilience, sport involvement, current stress and well-being, and perceptions about current, ongoing events that could disrupt the family. Results indicate the importance of the interaction between a family’s structure and context and their influence on a family’s desired elements of well-being and highlight the ways that a family’s resilience and sport involvement influence their perception of major environmental stressors. A final finding indicates that family sport involvement is significantly correlated with the dimensions of family resilience and the youth sport contexts where families participate. In sum the findings of this study underscore the importance of both the context and structure of a family on their daily family life and resilience and show how factors of resilience and sport involvement can be used to help family perceptions of stressful events occurring in their environments.

Graduation Semester

2021-12

Type of Resource

Thesis

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/113791

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2021 Jeffrey Farr

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