all parents should only say positive things about there kid or anyone else. its the coaches job to say negative things, if parents do not follow this rule they should be removed.

Well if you look around stadiums there are a Parents Cod of Conduct, most people don't read it, and the Court Supervisors are to gutless to do anything about it.


Most district clubs send out these code of conducts and kids cannot step on court until these are agreed to........ Where does the problem start? The parents? Or the lack of policing of the rules?

Parents are passionate about their kids, understandably so, sometimes that passion bursts out into an emotionally charged outrage!,

Everyone who is a parent that is present during a junior sporting event is responsible for, not only their own behaviour, but for those around them...

Take a look around you and ask yourself this question next time you hear a parent bagging out an official or abusing a kid on the court, "am I just as bad by allowing this to continue without saying something?"

It is up to all parents to police this type of behaviour and take responsibility for it, from within as well as from the outside...

"The Flinders University research on the "ugly parent syndrome" may help explain latest figures that show fewer South Australian children aged four to 15 are involved in organised Australian football."

I disagree that this is the cause for lower participation levels in football. Football is a contact sport and there has been a significant shift in parent's attitudes regarding contact over the years. NRL has reported massive drops in participation in lieu of AFL in NSW. Less contact being cited as the major reason. Parents are very protective of their children.

Let's not forget that 40% of marriages end in divorce these days and so there are a significant number of children in mixed living arrangements. With that in mind, a child's time on the weekend is precious and so parents probably want to spend more personal time with children. There's also the fact of who pays for organised sport. Is it the mother or the father? The CSA expect a joint responsibility, but it may not work out that way.

To suggest it as an explanation for lower participation only suggests a lack of depth in the study.

Some good points have been made.

I would agree that 'ugly parent syndrome' is very prevalent in basketball and indeed most sports, but wouldn't go as far as suggesting this to be the cause for a decrease in participation of organized football: other lifestyle factors would likely be a larger contributor.

However, 'ugly parent syndrome' being the primary reason for a child quitting their given sport might be more of the case in individual-oriented sports such as gymnastics, swimming, diving etc where performance is already demanded at such a high level.

PlaymakerMo - the performance sports tend not to have the same extent of the ugly parent syndrome and it manifests somewhat differently. My experience as a gymnastic coach and administrator, a parent of dancers and of gymnasts at State level, has been that parents in these sports aren't able to intervene during the "contest". They also lack the technical knowledge to openly challenge judges' and coaches' decisions and almost without exception, they know it and stay quiet in the stands or audience. My kids also have played volleyball and rugby (both codes) and I've run Auskick sessions, Little Athletics and Kanga cricket teams. My observation is that in these sports (and soccer, football, basketball, netball, etc.), most parents feel like they understand the game concerned and the rules, so they feel empowered to challenge decisions. In more technical sports, they don't feel that way.

Training sessions and venues in the performance sports are usually either closed to parents or a controlled environment. Coaches and organisers are good at keeping parents away from the floor/poolside/practice room. That reduces the risk of public outbursts.

In these sports, ugly parent tends to manifest through the parent-child interaction and the coach-parent interaction and is usually in a 1-1 situation after a training session or a competition/performance. Coaches are able to exert more control over these interactions, preventing the same level of unacceptable behaviour.

With problem parents, the good coaches are able to manage them as effectively as they do their children's development as performers. But, more often than not, it comes back to the parent recognising (consciously or subconsciously) that they aren't qualified to comment, so they don't behave like fools. The few problem parents are usually the ones trying to live vicariously through their children's achievements - the beauty pageant parents.

Jack,

Read the research, there is no link in what the study undertook - exploration of child-parent relationships - and declining participation - its the media drawing straws (making $#!t up).

Google
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/18377122.2013.760426 for link to the article.


Some useful quotes from parents involved in the study:

You need to teach parents that it's kids’ footy. There’s no premiership at the end of it,
you’re not winning the farmhouse, you know, it’s kids’ footy and the main reason they
are playing kids’ footy is to have fun, play with their mates to have fun . . .maybe if the
parents and everyone was a bit more chilled out, the over-the-top stuff on the sideline
probably wouldn’t happen.

It’s quite loud on the field . . . of course children are picking up on it [verbal abuse]. But
when a coach says, 'That was really disappointing’, you know, it is like, who are the kids
playing for? He [the coach] makes it seem like they’re all playing for him, you know,
disappointing for him. Well get over it sunshine, the kids are out there, playing fun just
to have fun.

We had a situation last year when we were coaching. A couple of parents got involved,
were coming up to the bench, saying ‘Why is Roy off ?’ and it has a decided impact on
the young children because I think they were quite embarrassed. There was one mother
in particular coming up [saying] ‘Why is Roy off?Why is Roy off?’. No matter what I
said to her, she couldn’t seem to accept that they had to come off, that there’s a rotation
system that we’ve got set up when you have too many kids, they have to all share equal
time on the bench . . . . The children, I think, seem to understand it more so than the
parents do; they [the parents] just focus on the one child rather than the team aspect.

And from the authors:

this study is not without its limitations and
should therefore be interpreted with caution. First, these collective perceptions result
from a homogenous sample recruited from one South Australian region.While it was
beyond the scope of the research to capture, with purpose, the influence of
demographic location and/or socioeconomic status on parental involvement, these
variables are important considerations for future research

And the media based the headline on this paragraph

Another interesting aspect of the results surrounded the idea that parents value
winning and success.While parents claimed that winning was not the central purpose
of children’s sport participation, they did agree that it was important. This
perspective adds further insight to the notion that a winning emphasis can reduce
children’s enjoyment, and potentially result in participatory withdrawal (Enoksen,
2011;Wall & Cote, 2007). The results of the present study suggest that there are some
issues surrounding parental involvement in junior Australian football. Although it
should be noted that most parents did not express any explicit examples of aggressive
parental behaviours, the themes suggested that there are some tensions around
parent interactions and relationships with others in junior sport.

Disagree with the media representation not with the depth of the study.

Yep, that's it. The media always slant stuff like this.

It is difficult to criticise the depth of the study when the scope of the research has not yet been published. The article cited in the above post relates to a similar, yet smaller investigation from back in 2010. Given that the 2012-13 study is much more comprehensive, and therefore will take much longer to publish, you might want to consider the finer details pertaining to your comment. Yes, the 2010 study lacks depth, but it was a smaller exploration. The 2012-13 study (which is yet to be published) boasts considerably more depth given that it comprises a students doctoral thesis.

I am a coach for an U14s boys team in Perth and i must say *touch wood* none of my parents have ugly parent syndrome.

They know that if they did, i would not tolerate it. In an U14s competition the kids are there for fitness and fun. Winning is a great perk, but not the main reason of playing. I teach my boys sportsmanship above skills and they're sitting happily in second place at the moment.

THe parents are nothing but supportive of them during the game (its training sessions that they push a little harder with the advice) and i definitely think that makes all the difference with their confidence