An online sports parenting programme could provide opportunities to engage under-represented families

Organised sport provides an important opportunity for regular physical activity for children, with research demonstrating it is key to children’s health and well-being. Recent research published this month from Matthew Saunders at the University of Queensland, Australia,  has begun to develop a new positive parenting programme, ‘Play Well Triple P’. The programme is designed to support parenting behaviour to enhance their child’s enjoyment and participation in the Junior Rugby League. The research findings demonstrate that participation in the programme improved positive parenting behaviour. Importantly, it is believed that programmes around sport can engage parents who might not otherwise participate in parenting programmes that are delivered through health and social care sectors. The research found that a wide range of parents and caregivers were attracted to junior sport, including mothers, fathers, grandparents, and socially disadvantaged parents. First nations or indigenous parents, and parents from other culturally diverse minority groups who are typically underrepresented in both research and the everyday delivery of parenting programmes (Keown et al., 2018; Rynne et al., 2023) were drawn to participate in the parenting programme. The results are viewed as promising, and it is believed that such initiatives could be successfully applied to other junior sporting contexts. To read more about the programme please click here.