Family involvement in the process of women’s basketball sports development

Abstract

The development of a sports career is influenced by personal factors such as motivation and goals in sport, as well as by contextual factors such as training and competition requirements, follow-ups and incentives from managers, coaches, colleagues and family members. In considering, in particular, the relevance and influence of the family in the competitive sports scenario of young athletes, this study had the objective of analyze the involvement of family members in the process of sports development of 31 women's basketball athletes belonging to a sports club in the state of Santa Catarina/Brazil. Data collection was conducted through semi-structured interviews with athletes, sports managers, and sports coaches, which were analyzed by content analysis technique in NVivo software (version 9.2). Most family members of the athletes practiced or is still practicing sports, especially basketball. There was predominance of family members’ moderate involvement in the young athletes’ sports career, which is embodied by the presence in the competitions and by providing informational, emotional, and concrete support. Moreover, there were found positive behaviors of family members regarding to the athletes’ performance requirements in basketball practice.