Friend, foe, or both? A retrospective exploration of sibling relationships in elite youth sport

Abstract

With the abundance of literature focusing on parental influence in sport, it is important to identify family dynamics that extend beyond parents to include siblings. In this study, sibling influence was explored though interviews with previously identified elite youth female athletes (N=4) and their sibling (N=4) of the same sex who participated in the same sport. The purpose was to discover how siblings influence sport participation and how parents influence sibling relationships, retrospectively. Three categories emerged from the data: positive experiences participating in the same sport, negative experiences participating in the same sport, and perception of the parental role.The participants' descriptions coincide with observational learning and both deidentification and divergence processes. The data adds to the probable sibling and parent experiences proposed in the Developmental Model of Sport Participation and provides insight for athletes, parents, and coaches on how to manage sibling relations in sport.

Family Relationships and Youth Sport: Influence of Siblings and Parents on Youth's Participation, Interests, and Skills

“…This omission is striking, given youth reports that siblings provide emotional support and serve as role models within the context of sport (Blazo et al, 2014;Davis & Meyer, 2008;Fraser-Thomas, Côté & Deakin, 2008;Nelson & Strachan, 2017;Trussell, 2014).…”

“…For example, siblings have also been identified as sources of competition, resentment, and jealousy (Blazo et al, 2014;Côté, 1999;Nelson & Strachan, 2017). Further, recent work on performance outcomes between siblings highlights findings that younger siblings achieve higher athletic status compared to older siblings (Hopwood, Farrow, MacMahon, & Baker, 2015).…”

“…While this is consistent with gender differences in participation (NCYS, 2008), such that boys tend to participate in more sport than girls, it is important for future research to monitor given the rising participation of girls in youth sport. In fact, given the changing contexts of sport participation, as more girls participate in youth sport, and become prominent figures while serving as role models for their sisters (Nelson & Strachan, 2017), future research would benefit from further exploration of sport participating older sisters' influence on younger sisters' interests in sports.…”

Seeing Double? A Practice-Based Investigation Into Twins Experiences of Sporting Talent Development

“…Collins et al, 2016). For example, Nelson and Strachan (2017) explored how siblings influence elite youth sport participation. Athletes participating in the same sport as their sibling(s) developed a much deeper understanding of each other and experiences endured which were both positive (e.g., relationship growth and understanding) and negative (e.g., sibling competition and emotional response).…”

The Talent Development Pathway for Elite Basketball Players in China

“…Among the intra-individual skills, one of the most repeated and highlighted comments by the interviewed players made reference to motivation as an engine in their sports career. This follows the line of studies that describe the same situation for non-elite players [110][111][112] elite junior players [113][114][115], elite players [57,[116][117][118], and super elite players [31,38,69,[119][120][121][122][123][124], where motivation was considered a key element to overcome obstacles throughout the athlete's career, both sports and non-sports sports. These high levels of motivation are often closely related to other psychological traits beneficial for achieving sporting success, such as resilience or mental strength [31,112,113,123].…”