Parental support for children’s sports training in Türkiye: cross-cultural adaptation, psychometric properties, and demographic differences

Abstract Background This study aimed to adapt the Parental Support for Children’s Sports Training Scale to the Turkish context, examine its psychometric properties, and evaluate parents’ support for their children’s sports training in relation to demographic, sports-related, and environmental variables. Methods The research consisted of two studies. In Study 1, the scale was adapted to the Turkish context, and its psychometric properties were examined through confirmatory factor analysis with the WLSMV estimator, based on data from a final sample of 286 parents. In Study 2, data from a final sample of 194 parents were used to examine differences in parental support across demographic, sports-related, and environmental variables using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). Results In Study 1, the ten-factor first-order structure demonstrated acceptable model fit, whereas the hierarchical structure proposed in the original study was not supported in the sample from Türkiye. Evidence for convergent and discriminant validity and internal consistency was generally satisfactory, although psychometric concerns were identified for Sports Development and Training Quality Support. In Study 2, no statistically significant multivariate difference was found by parental gender, whereas significant multivariate differences were observed by parental education level, previous sports experience, frequency of participation in sports/exercise, availability of sports/exercise facilities in the local area, number of children, type of school attended by the child, and the child’s participation in sports. Conclusions The findings support interpreting the Turkish version of the Parental Support for Children’s Sports Training Scale in terms of ten distinct dimensions rather than a total score. Parental support also varied across several sports-related, demographic, and environmental characteristics. Assessing these dimensions separately may provide a more differentiated understanding of the family, school, community, and broader contextual influences on parental support for children’s sports training.