‘Watching her compete was one of the worst experiences in my life.’ A comic representation of parents’ experiences of performance expectancies directed towards elite athletes

Responding to the growing need to translate complex sport psychology research into accessible formats, this study presents the consequences of performance expectancies for elite athletes’ parents, using a short-form comic as a creative dissemination tool. Six parents (Mage = 53.50, S = 1.04 years) of athletes who experienced interpersonal expectancies regarding their performances at major international sporting events participated in semi-structured interviews. Interview transcripts were analysed using narrative thematic analysis, and four master themes, along with 13 subthemes, were constructed. A novel, systematic, five-step process of data transformation was then used to create a short-form comic grounded in the parents’ stories and encapsulating the study themes. The comic represents our findings in an evocative, rich and accessible format, illustrating 1) the cognitive, affective, and behavioural consequences of accumulating expectancies for the parents (e.g. fear of failure); 2) media‑related challenges experienced by parents (e.g. phrasing of reporters’ questions); and 3) strategies used to manage their experiences of the expectancies (e.g. withdrawal from media interviews). Findings demonstrate that performance expectancies can have a ripple effect, extending beyond the athlete to their family networks, and consequences can be omnipresent and continuously appraised negatively. We provide suggestions to help support family members with managing the consequences associated with the expectancies (e.g. using the comic to normalise experiences, peer-to-peer support groups, signposting support on organisation websites). Finally, we consider the potential benefits and pitfalls of comics as a research dissemination method.