The purpose of this study was to specifically explore the essence and nature of parents’ pride associated with their child(ren)’s JG Program participation. Evidence emerged to suggest parents’ unanimously felt proud about their child(ren)’s participation and regarded the JG program as a valuable, positive opportunity.
Based on responses, parents’ high regard and pride was associated with this program because of the prerequisites to participate. Data indicated that parents’ provision of the opportunity for their child(ren) to participate in the JG program translated to their self-believed capacity to be a ‘good parent’ and thus, made the parents themselves feel pride. The current neo-liberal view on parenting in western cultures emphasizes that caretakers are the sole ones responsible for their child’s participation in extracurricular activities [8]. Therefore, having created the opportunity for their child(ren) to participate in the JG program was the largest source of parental pride.
In addition, parents reported pride in their child’s cognitive development and the learning obtained through involvement in the JG program. This was noted most often as their child(ren) acquiring safety skills or specific procedural knowledge related to the lifeguard profession. Emotional growth was another type of development cited as important to parents’ affect related to pride. Parents seemed to be proud of their child(ren) for making self-esteem gains or for feeling more confident in the ocean environment. The last type of development connected to parents’ feeling proud was physical development. Children either gained specific physical skills (e.g., swimming capabilities) or an overall gain in physical competency (e.g., physical fitness or endurance). The findings are noteworthy since the JG Program intentionally embeds activities for both physical and cognitive development within its curriculum [14]. Parents emphasized they were overtly supportive and ultimately proud of the cognitive, physical, and emotional skills their children learned and applied in a dynamic environment, such as the ocean.
The results of this study highlight why parents may make various sacrifices required to have their child participate in a Positive Youth Development (PYD) context. Parents reported several different cognitive, emotional, and physical development opportunities as a result of program participation. Parents valuing potential benefits for their child(ren) above all else is consistent with previous findings [17]. The developmental gains achieved by their child(ren) made the JG program engagement experience satisfying to parents and worth the various investments made.
Another large contributor to parents feeling pride was gaining an opportunity for themselves and/or their child to receive positive impacts within their communities from their child(ren)’s participation in the JG Program. This was evidenced across broader geographical to smaller family communities. Parents emphasized the importance of the JG Program facilitating increased social connections with other JG families and increased connection in their own families. The JG program was commonly referred to as “a part of their family.” These results are consistent with previous findings of the reciprocal model of socialization between child(ren) and families in sport [18]. Parents and families had a growing sense of identity within the JG community through integration into the JG culture, which then resulted in the feeling of pride from experiences of being “a part of something bigger”. Through feeling as though they were a part of the JG program, parents then viewed other JG parents as having a connection to them and were bonded to the JG program as a whole. As such, parents’ feelings of relatedness within the JG program simply from their child(ren)’s participation could have contributed to their feelings of pride reported in this study.
Despite the insightful findings, some limitations to this study must be acknowledged. First, the question asked of parents, “Are you proud to be a junior lifeguard parent? Please share your rationale for your response,” may have limited the type of responses parents provided. Parents may have felt inclined to always answer yes or favorably due to the nature of the questions, which may be why all the responses received were positive or a “yes.” The use of data obtained through survey-based short answers may have limited responses as opposed to what an in-depth investigation into the parents’ rationale through interviews may have revealed. This study was only conducted with participants in west coast programs based in California, USA therefore JG program parents of other demographics may have responded differently to the questions asked. Lastly, this study was exploratory in nature and is a brief insight into parental pride through analyzing responses to one question rather than a large array of responses to many questions about a variety of parent emotions and experiences.