Cardiovascular and Energy Requirements of Parents Watching Their Child Compete: A Pilot Mixed-Methods Investigation

Abstract

Purpose:Researchers have extensively documented the cardiovascular and metabolic demands for sports participation.To date, researchers have ignored the same requirements of competitor's parents. Hence, our purpose was to document parent cardiovascular and metabolic responses to watching their child compete while also paying particular attention to their thoughts before and after the competition. Achievement Goal Theory (AGT) drove interpretation of parent thoughts. Material:Parents wore a device, made by Firstbeat Technologies, which continuously monitored heart rate. The parents wore the device the night before the competition to be acclimated to the technology and during the event until later in the day. Parents also completed two open-ended questions, one before the tournament and one after the contest. Results:Before the contest, the dad expected that his son won the event (Croatian National Championships for juniors). Conversely, the mother's expectations centered more on her son's enjoyment and competing to the best of his abilities. Parents had differing cardiovascular and energy requirement responses to watching their son compete. In addition, post-competition reflections differed as the father expressed disappointment whereas the mother expressed sadness. Conclusions:The data presented are unique and a first in the sports literature. The parents varied in the intensity of their cardiovascular responses and calories burned while watching their son compete. The father's cardiovascular response over the course of watching was that of an aerobic workout. Whether this pattern is unique or universal are a critical research question. Last, AGT appears relevant when assessing the parent's expectations.

Parents at the sport competition: How they react, feel and cope with the event

“…In this research data was collected using mixedmethod approach which was previously used in a past sport parents studies [6] [20]. Parent's cardiovascular, metabolic and emotional reactions, levels of stress, anxiety and depression as well as coping strategies were quantitative data.…”

“…In this study, the goal was to document cardiovascular, metabolic and emotional reactions of sport parents before, during and after their child's competition taking into consideration their expectations for the event. The mixed-methods approach was used, similar to the one used in our previous pilot study on sport parents [20]. To further expand the existing research base in this area, we quantitatively measured parent's cardiovascular, metabolic and emotional reactions, levels of stress, anxiety and depression as well as coping strategies they used to cope with stress before, during and after their daughter's National Championship in taekwondo.…”

“…Reactions to stress are not only psychological but physiological as well, one of them being increased heart rate [17]. Heart rate monitors are commonly used in research on athletes [18,19], but have only so far been used in one research on sport parents which used AGT theory framework to explain parent's reactions [20]. Achievement Goal Theory (AGT) [21,22] describes existence of task or mastery and ego or performance individual goal orientations and motivational climates, with ego/performance orientation emphasizing winning and demonstrating superior ability, and task/mastery orientation emphasizing self-comparison and personal improvement.…”

“…Overall experience was also measured using one open-ended question which parents fi lled in the evening, after the competition ended: "Please describe your day, give us some thoughts about today's competition, and describe how you felt during today's competition". Both questions were taken from our earlier study on sport parents [20].…”

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“…The technique also promotes body weight reduction (Kopeikina et. al., 2013;Lochbaum, Prosoli, & Barić, 2017).…”