Title: Parents' interactions with contextual factors in youth sport participation: the case of Korean immigrants in the USA

Authors: Kyu-Soo Chung; Matthew T. Bowers

Addresses: Department of Exercise Science and Sport Management, Kennesaw State University, 1000 Chastain Road, Kennesaw, GA 30144, USA ' Department of Kinesiology and Health Education, University of Texas at Austin, 2109 San Jacinto Blvd., Stop D3700, Austin, TX 78712 USA

Abstract: Parents interact with their surrounding environment as they support their children's sport activities. Family ecological theory suggests that these interactions occur at various levels - the micro-, meso-, exo-, and macrosystems. In trying to understand how Korean immigrant parents support their children's sport participation, this study conducts in-depth interviews with a total of 17 Korean immigrant parents. This study finds that the variety of contextual factors they interact with include family, neighbourhood, school, sport organisations, work, policy and system, and cultures. The study also finds how the parents interact differently with these contexts according to their gender and children's level of sport. Free of the 'education fever' that engulfs nearly all parents in Korea, the immigrant parents found themselves at liberty to interact more actively with the values and customs of US society to support their children's sport participation.

Keywords: ecological theory; youth sport; parents; sport participation; sport development; immigrants; contextual factors; education fever; culture; elite sport.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSMM.2018.093355

International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 2018 Vol.18 No.4, pp.322 - 339

Received: 19 Sep 2016
Accepted: 07 Mar 2017
Published online: 25 Jul 2018 *

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