The impact of becoming a parent in relation to participation in sports

Abstract

The aim of this dissertation was to understand the effects that becoming a parent has on participation in sports, exploring the encouraging and discouraging factors for one’s athletic career. Consequently, the main research question of this study was: ‘Did you continue or discontinue your athletic career once becoming a parent, and what were the reasons for this?’ This research study recruited eight athletes who have just become parents, with four participants who have continued their athletic career, while the other four participants discontinued it. The participants consisted of four males and four females, with semi-structured interviews being the main research tool in order to gain an in-depth understanding and bring out any gender differences in their experiences. Subsequently, the data was analysed using thematic analysis, and four over-arching themes were developed, each extending into various sub-themes. In general, the parents who continued their athletic career stated that they viewed sports as their own personal leisure time, finding it difficult to live without it, with their main encouraging factor being the support they received. On the other hand, athletes who discontinued their athletic career once becoming parents reported problems with guilt, and the inability to succeed as both a parent and an athlete. Female athletes also mentioned more discouraging factors than male athletes, such as internal pressure, guilt and housework duties which were not mentioned at all by the male participants. All the participants also reported that they received no support whatsoever from any sporting organisations, showing the lack of support for these athletes.