Research report: Parental achievement orientations and parent-perceived child Well-being in competitive youth swimming: A qualitative study with parent in Türkiye

A qualitative study of 12 parents of young athletes competing in national swimming competitions in Türkiye identified four themes concerning family involvement in competitive sport: the different meanings parents from different socioeconomic backgrounds attach to sport, a sacrifice–obligation dynamic, differentiated parental roles after competitive failure, and an unequal distribution of visible and invisible family labor. The findings are based on parents’ accounts and do not measure children’s well-being or motivation. Researchers conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with seven fathers and five mothers.

The accounts were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis informed by McClelland’s achievement motivation framework and self-determination theory. Parents described investing time and resources in their children’s swimming participation, with family life reorganized around training schedules. They also described children developing a sense of indebtedness following parental investment.

Researchers characterized this as a sacrifice–obligation dynamic in the narratives rather than as a demonstrated psychological mechanism. The interviews showed that parental roles were differentiated after competitive failure, while family contributions were distributed unevenly. Some contributions were readily visible, whereas others involved less visible support connected to organizing everyday life around training.

The study examined how parents described sacrifice, success, failure and the organization of family life, and what those accounts might reveal about the athletes’ motivational worlds. The authors interpret the motivational implications as analytically constructed propositions about possible family-level narrative and relational processes, not as findings about the children themselves. The evidence is limited to a small qualitative sample, with only one parent from each family participating.

The young athletes were neither interviewed nor assessed, so the results reflect parents’ perceptions rather than observed family processes or measured child outcomes. The study therefore cannot establish how children experienced parental behavior, whether parental achievement orientations were associated with child well-being, or whether family arrangements had causal effects. The abstract proposes that future multi-informant research could test these interpretations, but the present study did not perform that assessment.

Subject of Research: Parents’ accounts of family life and motivational contexts in competitive youth swimming in Türkiye

Article Title: Parental achievement orientations and parent-perceived child Well-being in competitive youth swimming: A qualitative study with parent in Türkiye

Article References: Kalkan, N., Zekioğlu, A., Urhan, B. U., Korkut, F., Uysal, S. N., Tejaswi, J., & Govindasamy, K. (2026). Parental achievement orientations and parent-perceived child Well-being in competitive youth swimming: A qualitative study with parent in Türkiye. BMC Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-026-05663-3

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s40359-026-05663-3

Keywords: competitive youth swimming, parental involvement, parent interviews, child well-being, achievement motivation, family labor, competitive failure, qualitative study, Türkiye, Parental, achievement, orientations