The Reverse Socialization of Sport Fans: How Children Impact Their Parents’ Sport Fandom

Abstract

While the sport fan literature suggests that it is common for parents to socialize their children to cheer for specific sports and teams, recent literature proposes that children can socialize their parents into changing the parents’ sport fandom in a process sociologists and consumer behavior researchers refer to as reverse socialization. To ascertain whether children can socialize and influence their parents’ sport fandom, 20 sport fan parents were interviewed. Evidence of reverse socialization was found in 15 of the participants, manifesting itself in ways that can be categorized as either developing new or additional fandom, or changing one’s behaviors or attitudes towards their existing fandom. However, further exploration of the data suggests that future research reexamine the term “reverse socialization,” as we do not see this as a directionality of influence, but as children as socializing agents.

Developing a Fanbase in Niche Sport Markets: An Examination of NHL Fandom and Social Sustainability in the Sunbelt

“…School programs was the second of five team-initiated factors that led to fan socialization. Although some participants may not have been school age when becoming a fan, Mastromartino, Zhang and Wann [20] noted that sometimes parents would become socialized through the school programs of their child, supporting findings from Hyatt, Kerwin, Hoeber and Sveinson [23]. Participants felt that they or their child found school programs to be beneficial and provided value to them, contributing to their socialization as a fan of the team, specifically leading to an increased sense of civic pride.…”

“…Previous research has concluded that the main influences on one's socialization process includes the fan's family, peers, schoolmates, coaches, local community, media, team/league promotions, and playing experience [16][17][18][19]22]. Additionally, Hyatt, et al [23] found that sometimes, it can be a child who socializes a parent into fandom. These results have held up over the years, yet with a changing sport consumption landscape and a focus on niche markets, these results may not be applicable.…”

“…For influence from family or friends, this could be perhaps most fans of NHL teams in the Sunbelt are among the first generation of fans, as most teams began play within the last 25 years, making it unlikely someone is part of a family who has a long-standing tradition of being fans of that team. Additionally, as Hyatt, Kerwin, Hoeber and Sveinson [23] note, with a growing global technological landscape, children have access to communication technology their parents did not, giving them new socialization opportunities outside of their parents. In another departure from previous socialization literature, media exposure did not play a role in the socialization of these fans in this region.…”

U.S. Women's Sport Consumption and Self-Identified Fandom: An Exploration of Social Structural and Sociocultural Antecedents

“…Children may lead women to consume more sport for social or relationship building reasons (Farrell et al, 2011;Gantz and Wenner, 1991) and they sometimes nurture parents' fan identities (Hyatt et al, 2018). Therefore, we posit: Hypothesis #2: Number of resident children will be positively associated with women's sport consumption.…”

U.S. Public Opinion about the Personal Development and Social Capital Benefits of Sport: An analysis of the Great Sport Myth

“…In fact, nurturing and investing in family-based interactions and cultures around sport is often perceived as "good" parenting (Eckstein, 2017;Knoester & Fields, 2020;Knoester & Randolph, 2019;Wheeler, 2011). Yet, parents may also become immersed in sport interactions and come to embrace the perceived benefits of sport from their children's own interests and activities (Dorsch et al, 2009(Dorsch et al, , 2015Hyatt et al, 2018;Knoester & Fields, 2020;Knoester & Randolph, 2019). Consequently, having parents who are more passionate about sports and having children of one's own may encourage individuals to possess greater belief in the personal development and social capital benefits of sport.…”