Browsing by Author "Vaittinen, Katri"

According to the Register of Associations, there are 14,000 sports clubs in Finland and up to 55% of children and adolescents aged 7-14 participate in their activities. When children and young people participate in sports club activities, it also engages their parents as part of the sports club. Parents enable sports club activities by bringing children and young people into the community, paying hobby fees, and volunteering for the benefit of the sports club. This Master’s thesis is based on Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory, which provides a basis for exploring the interaction between different educational environments. Based on the data I collected, I researched parents' perceptions of communication, collaboration, and the role parents play in sports club activities. I collected data in an online questionnaire in February 2019, which was answered by 254 parents of athletes under the age of 18 from sports clubs around Finland. The analysis of the data was conducted through qualitative methods, classi-fying, typing and theming. There has been no previous research on the subject from the parents’ point of view, so the goal was to provide the sports clubs participating in the study with new information that can improve parent-club cooperation and provide an overview of parents' views on cooperation with the sports club. It turned out that communication between the sports club and parents is based on electronic communication. Sports clubs are more likely to contact parents for in-formation, but parents are more likely to be in contact with a sports club regarding a child or young person. Parents felt that communication, openness and a common spirit worked to-gether. In their responses, parents described their role in the sports club as sponsor, encourage and transport, or through volunteer roles such as treasurer or team leader. The results of the survey highlighted the desire to have a clear role description of being a parent in a sports club and advice on how to support a sporting child and adolescent. Parents of young people, especially those aged 13, felt they needed support from the sports club for their own parenting. Previous studies, on the other hand, show that at the age of 13 a young person starts to think about quitting sports with a sports club. Nationally, however, more research is needed on the subject, but in the future, more attention should be paid to mutual interaction, parents supporting and educating sport club leaders.