Socially-just parent intervention inquiry: challenges and potential pathways

Research has routinely lent credence to the importance of having parent(s) and/or caregiver(s) who are actively involved and prioritise their children’s sporting development. Stimulated by a desire from sport organisations for resources and the growing body of knowledge related to sport parent involvement, there has been a steady rise in the development of interventions for youth sport parents. However, while these interventions have developed, the extent to which they have been developed, implemented, and evaluated in a socially just manner has not been considered. As such, the purpose of the current critical commentary is to provide novel insights that seek to instigate critical reflexivity when developing, implementing, and evaluating socially-just interventions for youth sport parents. To instigate critical reflection on the current state of research and identify alternative lines of inquiry moving forward, three overarching questions are posed. Specifically, this paper explores (1) Who has been included in data upon which interventions are developed? (2) What should be expected from parents? and (3) Where programs fit and fail?