Significant others’ positive reinforcement, punishment, and dysfunction behaviours in youth sport

Abstract

Significant others, such as coaches, parents, teammates/friends, and PE teachers, are important to children and adolescence’s participation in sport. Research have been interested in exploring their social interaction and relationship quality with young sport players in sport, and what leads to an adaptive social environment that encourages adaptive sporting experience. We present two studies that respectively introduce the development and validation of assessment tools (i.e., Perceived Social Influence in Sport Scale; PSISS) to capture the young sport participants’ perception of social influence from significant others. Study 1 was the initial development and validation of the first version of PSISS that measured positive reinforcement (i.e., praise or reward for achievement) and punishment (i.e., punishment for mistakes) of significant others among 433 young swimmers (Aged 9 to 12). Using qualitative data, expert panel review, and factor analysis among 355 young sport players (Aged 8 to 18), Study 2 revised the PSISS-1 and developed PSISS-2 that refined the items and introduced two more dimensions of perceived social influence that reflected the unconditional responses given by significant others, including affiliation (i.e., respect, affection, supportiveness, understanding) and dysfunction (e.g., conflicts, causing negative emotions, lack of respect, negative behaviours). The score reliability and factor structure supported the hypothesized framework of perceived social influence, and the dimensions of PSISS-1 and PSISS-2 explained considerable variance of enjoyment, effort, competence, and trait anxiety among young sport players. In summary, Perceived Social in Sport Scale may help identify the specific types of social influence and the social agents that are important and adaptive to youth’s sporting experience.