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Article

Athletes and parents coping with deselection in competitive youth sport: A communal coping perspective

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Citation

Neely KC, McHugh TF, Dunn JGH & Holt NL (2017) Athletes and parents coping with deselection in competitive youth sport: A communal coping perspective. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 30, pp. 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2017.01.004

Abstract
Objective The purpose of this study was to examine how female adolescent athletes and their parents cope with deselection from provincial sport teams using a communal coping perspective. Method Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 female adolescent athletes (M age = 15.0 years; SD = 1.4) and 14 of their parents (5 fathers, 9 mothers; M age = 45.2 years; SD = 5.4). Participants were deselected from provincial soccer (n = 4), basketball (n = 5), volleyball (n = 2), and ice hockey (n = 3) teams. Data were analyzed using a descriptive phenomenological approach (Giorgi, 2009) guided by a framework of communal coping (Lyons, Mickelson, Sullivan, & Coyne, 1998). Results Participants appraised deselection from a shared perspective (i.e., athletes and parents viewed deselection as ¡®our problem¡¯) and the responsibility for coping with deselection changed as time progressed. Initially, parents protected their daughters from the negative emotions arising from deselection (an ¡®our problem, my responsibility¡¯ orientation). Athletes and parents then engaged in cooperative actions to manage their reactions to the stressor (an ¡®our problem, our responsibility¡¯ orientation). Finally, athletes and parents engaged in individual coping strategies, again reflecting an ¡®our problem, my responsibility¡¯ orientation but with athletes taking more responsibility for coping. Conclusion This study demonstrated the value of using a communal coping perspective to understand interpersonal dimensions of coping in sport, and revealed forms and processes of communal coping used by athletes and their parents.

Keywords
Sport psychology; Youth sport; Deselection; Coping; Adolescence; Phenomenology; Qualitative

Journal
Psychology of Sport and Exercise: Volume 30

StatusPublished
Funders
Publication date31/05/2017
Publication date online22/01/2017
Date accepted by journal19/01/2017
URL
PublisherElsevier BV
ISSN1469-0292