Parents’ expectations of kids’ sports success: Ohio State study

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Big events like the Super Bowl and the Olympics often fuel young athletes’ dreams, but the reality is that very few children will ever reach those elite levels.

New research from Ohio State University shows that most parents keep those sports aspirations in check. However, a notable group still believes their child has a better-than-average shot at becoming a top athlete.

Chris Knoester, professor of sociology at OSU, co-authored the study with lead author Christopher McLeod, an associate professor of health and human performance at the University of Florida. It was published in the Journal of Sport and Social Issues.

The data used in the study came from the National Sports and Society Survey, which was sponsored by Ohio State’s Sports and Society Initiative. People from all 50 states participated in the online nationwide survey, conducted between the fall of 2018 and the spring of 2019.

Adults who were parents of a child aged 6 to 17 and living at home were surveyed. If the parents had multiple children, they were asked to base their answers on just one child.

In the survey, 34% thought it was somewhat or very likely that their child would become a small-college athlete. Additionally, 27% thought it was likely they would become a college scholarship athlete and 17% thought it was somewhat or very likely they would become a professional or Olympic athlete.

“Most parents seem to have realistically pessimistic expectations about how much their children might achieve in sports,” Knoester said. “But there were sometimes wide differences in expectations depending on a variety of factors, including parents’ race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, neighborhood they lived in, sports fandom and whether they thought their child had a strong identity as an athlete.”

Expectations rose sharply when parents believed their child had an intense “athletic identity.”

“When parents believe their child thinks of themselves as an athlete, and has a strong athletic identity, that seems to be an on switch for parents to have these very high expectations,” Knoester said.

That belief alone increased the odds of high expectations by up to 80 percentage points, making parents more likely to believe their child would become a college athlete than parents who did not think that their child thought of themselves as an athlete “at all.” When parents considered the odds of their child becoming a pro or Olympic athlete, the gap was less pronounced at 35 percentage points.

The study found that expectations tended to drop as children got older.

“This suggests to me that many parents are thinking rationally about this, and as their children reach certain milestones, they reevaluate their expectations and realize their children probably aren’t going to be extraordinarily successful athletes,” McLeod said.

Parents’ race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, neighborhood makeup and sports fandom, across all groups, also shaped how optimistic they were about future success.

“Parents who were stronger sports fans were more optimistic or keen on expecting their kids to become an elite athlete,” Knoester said.

Researchers were surprised that the gender of the child and the parents did not change expectations for a child’s achievement in sports. The study authors originally believed parents’ predictions would increase for male children.

Overall, the researchers cautioned that high expectations often conflict with reality. Only about 7% of high school athletes go on to play college sports, and the leap to the professional level is far steeper. The NCAA estimates just 1.5% of college football players are drafted into the NFL.

“We should be concerned about people putting too much focus on their child becoming a high-level elite athlete, given the odds that it is most likely not going to happen for the overwhelming majority,” Knoester said. “There needs to be a Plan B if the athletic dreams and aspirations don’t work out.”

McLeod noted the study reveals which particular parents could have unreasonable expectations.

“Our findings can help target educational messaging around parental pressures and behaviors most likely to be associated with overly high expectations,” McLeod said.