Effect of parent responsiveness on young athletes’ self-perceptions and thriving: An exploratory study in a Belgian French-Community

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence parental responsive support (observed) and perceived on athletes’ self-perceptions thriving. Forty-one French-speaking Belgian individual sport athletes aged 12–15 years (M = 13.13, SD 0.90) one their parent’s spent 10 min discussing three important sport-related goals for next season. discussion video-taped coded identify parents’ behaviors. After discussion, responded a series questionnaires measuring responsiveness, self-efficacy, self-esteem, thriving indicators (i.e., positive affect, vitality, life satisfaction, health quality). results show that observed contributed proximal perceptions self-efficacy. Both mediated by were positively related athlete’s self-esteem. Further, responsiveness with while in self-efficacy Overall, it appears perception are associated optimal wellbeing young athletes. This demonstrates parents can provide children context. These add further weight suggestions organizations should actively include, rather than exclude, processes.