"It Felt Like a Cold War and No One Said Anything": Understanding Coach-Parent Relationships in Youth Sport

Youth sport is a complex system that has been positioned as a worthwhile platform for educating young people. Although past research has been beneficial in shedding light on coach-parent interactions and relationships, additional research is required to explore parents', coaches', and athletes' perceptions as an interrelated unit. Therefore, the primary purpose of the present study was to examine Portuguese youth sport coaches', parents', and athletes' perspectives toward the factors and dynamics that influence parent-coach relationships. Utilizing Interpretive Descriptive Methodology, a total of 32 participants (11 coaches, 11 parents, and 10 athletes) were recruited for this study. Findings highlight the need to understand the context(s) in which coach- parent relationships take place before developing intervention programs, policy guidelines, and/or recommendations for practitioners. The findings also reinforce the need for parents to be considered as important as coaches if youth sport systems are to become influential settings for youth education, development, and performance. Moving forward, a sustained culture of positive, complimentary, and reciprocal coach-parent relationships can create openness toward learning novel strategies and processes to enhance these relationships through contextualized interventions.