Parents striving for their kids to become the next Tiger Woods or Michael Phelps or Venus and Serena Williams and spending beau coup bucks on their kids’ sport activities are actually making their kids hate the sport, new research states.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the researcher who studied parental spending on young athletes expected to find a positive correlation of happier kids to increased spending. Instead sport psychologist Travis Dorsch learned that parents who spend more on their child’s athletics run the risk of reducing the child’s enjoyment of the sport.
“When parental sports spending goes up, it increases the likelihood either that the child will feel pressure or that the parent will exert it,” Dr. Dorsch, a Utah State University professor and former professional football player told the Journal.
The study notes that the increased investments stem from increased expectations that their kids will excel and return their investment, but that is unlikely in many cases where the kids are learning to despise the sport. It recommends that parents temper their financial output.
Read more in today’s Wall Street Journal.