Swedish youth football players' attitudes towards moral decision in sport as predicted by the parent-initiated motivational climate

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine associations between late adolescent football players' perceptions of the motivational climate as initiated by mothers and fathers and attitudes towards moral decision making in sports. Design: Cross-sectional. Methods: Participants were 213 Swedish football players (144 males, 67 females) aged 16-19 years who completed measures assessing perceived parent-initiated motivational climate (i.e., success-without effort climate [SWEC]; worry conducive climate [WCC]; and learning/enjoyment climate [LEC]) and attitudes towards moral decision-making in sport (i.e., acceptance of cheating [AOC]; acceptance of gamesmanship [AOC.] and keeping winning in proportion [KWIP]). Results: Canonical correlations demonstrated moderate positive relations between parent initiated both mother and father performance climates (WCC and SWEC) and AOC and AOG. Moreover, the relationship between mother and father-initiated learning/enjoyment climate (LEC) were shown to be moderately and positively associated with the prosocial attitude dimension of KWIP. Results also showed that a mother-initiated LEC and a mother-initiated SWEC were stronger predictors of the criterion variables (AOC, AOG, and KWIP) than equivalent father-initiated climate dimensions. Conclusions: The results highlight the importance of considering the relationship between parent initiated climates especially initiated by mothers and the development of moral decision-making among youth football players. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.