Parental Involvement in Sport: Does it Help? Assessing the Role of Parental Support in Shaping Athletic Motivation and Success from Athlete’s Point of View

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between parental involvement and support with athletes’ performance outcome, particularly in KARISMA athlete at Universiti Teknologi MARA Seremban Campus. A total of 198 respondents (121 males and 77 females) took part in the research. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the first two research objectives and the third objective was addressed with Pearson correlation analyses exploring the relationships in parental involvement support and athlete performance. To measure parents' involvement, the Parental Involvement in Sports Questionnaire (PISQ) was used which reflects four dimensions of parental involvement: Active Involvement, Directive Behavior, Praise and Understanding, and Pressure. Sports Performance was assessed via the Athlete's Subjective Performance Scale (ASPS) in three subscales: General Performance, Team Contribution and Personal Ability. The highest mean score for PISQ was Pressure then Directive Behavior, and for Praise and Understanding this with the lowest, with Active Involvement scoring was 3.42 mean score. ASPS: Team Contribution and Personal Ability had the highest mean scores. Results of Pearson correlation delineated a significant relationship between Parental involvement support and athlete performance with (r= 0.609, p < 0.01). This is a moderately high correlation but one that probably indicates, nevertheless, just how influential parent support can be in athlete performance. In short, parental involvement is a source of positive influences and has positive outcomes and consequences.