The Structural Relationship Among Perceived Positive and Negative Parenting Attitude, Life Skills, and Transfer of Chinese Student-Athletes

A parenting attitude is regarded as a very important factor inuencing the positive development of student-athletes. However, there are far fewer studies on parenting attitude in sport PYD area. This study aimed to understand the relationship among the positive/negative parenting attitudes, life skills, and transfer. Participants were 257 Chinese student-athletes (male=171, female=86, Mage=15.70) in track and eld, basketball, soccer, and taekwondo. Date were analyzed by using descriptive statistic, correlation, and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). SEM analysis showed that parenting attitude was signicantly related to life skills development and transfer. A positive parenting attitude had a positive effect on life skills and transfer, while a negative parenting attitude had a negative effect. Furthermore, positive and negative parenting attitudes indirectly affected life skills transfer by mediating life skills development. The ndings of this study show that the role of parents determines the possibility of life skills development and transfer of Chinese student-athletes.


Introduction
In China, the student-athlete system has been implemented to foster elite sport. It has been reported that approximately 460,000 student-athletes are solely dedicated to sport (Gou, 2019). The support at the Chinese government level has established a foundation for China to obtain great results in various world competitions, including the Summer and Winter Olympics (Ling & Hong, 2014). However, unlike the impressive super cial achievements, minor and major side effects have been generated under the surface. In particular, the win-at-all-cost philosophy in sport has hindered the balanced development of body, emotion, and psychology of student-athletes. This unbalanced physical education system has affected the lives of student-athletes adversely after their retirement. For instance, world gymnastics champion Zhang Shang Wu was arrested by the police after trying to steal due to the hardships of life after his retirement (Ling & Hong, 2014). This incident greatly impacted not only the sport world in China but also Chinese society. This has increased a demand for support for student-athletes to achieve balanced physical and psychological development through sport.
Representatively, Various studies have been conducted in the eld of sport psychology based on the positive youth development (PYD) through sport (Holt, 2016). This view sees the youth as beings with the potential and competence to create a righteous society, not as beings who have to solve developmental problems (Holt, 2016). Competence in this context is used as inner assets that in uence the youth to grow positively. Among them, "life skills" are the most representative internal asset that PYD researchers have paid attention to. Holt, Deal, and Smyth (2016), Cronin and Allen (2017) argued that life skills could be used as a concrete and practical strategy to alleviate various side effects found in elite sport elds. It is because student-athletes can develop their social, psychological, and emotional strengths through sport, and as a result, balanced development and sport values can be transferred to their lives (Holt, Deal, Life skills are de ned as "skills that help the youth adapt and cope successfully in a variety of environments such as a school, home, and community" (Hodge, Danish, & Martin, 2013). Speci cally, they include various psychological, emotional, and behavioral skills such as goal setting, emotion control, problem-solving, positive thinking, and communication (Lim, Bae, & Jang, 2018). Ultimately, they pursue transfer. Transfer refers to the ability to internalize life skills learned in sport and generalize them to life outside sport (Pierce, Gould, & Camire, 2017). Transfer aims to help the youth have happy and valuable lives by developing life skills through sport (Weiss, Bolter, & Kipp, 2014). However, Shek et al. (2020) reported that approximately 18% of students in China felt that their life skills were lacking. Moreover, the level of their life skills decreased as their grade was higher because school education only focused on grades and outcomes. In particular, the need for a balanced development of student-athletes began to persuade people more because of the social maladjustment of Chinese student-athletes. Currently, various life skills and transfer have been studied based on PYD.
Early life skill researchers supported the implicit approach that life skills could be developed and transferred su ciently just by participating in sport (Jones & Lavallee, 2009). However, recent studies support the explicit approach that it is more effective when signi cant others (e.g., coach, parents, peers, etc.) deliberately mediate and provide appropriate interventions (Holt et al., 2017). Gould and Carson (2008) argued that coaches and parents act as key facilitators for student-athletes in the process of developing and transferring life skills. Pierce et al. (2017) also emphasized the role of parents and coaches and included them as key factors in the life skills transfer model. In fact, Cronin and Allen (2018) reported that the autonomy support climate formed by the coach directly affected the life skills development, self-esteem, positive affect, and satisfaction with life of student-athletes.
However, as pointed out by Harwood and Knight (2015), there are far fewer studies on parental involvement compared to studies on coaches. Holt et al. (2017) conducted a meta-analysis using 63 studies on PYD and analyzed studies on signi cant others. The result showed that there were 19 studies on coaches, but only 9 studies were on parents. The result of this study supports the argument that studies in the PYD eld have paid less attention to parents.
From a PYD perspective, parents are key elements in external assets (Holt & Neely, 2011;Holt et al., 2017). This is because parents have the closest relationship with their children (student-athletes) biologically, socially, and psychologically. Furthermore, a parenting attitude is a very important factor in uencing the positive development of student-athletes . In general, parenting attitude can be divided into two dimensions: positive or negative (Skinner, Johson, & Snyder, 2005). The positive parenting attitude is composed of warmth, autonomy support, and structure, while warmth indicates child-centered, affectionate, and reward-using attitudes, autonomy support means letting children make their own decisions and emphasizes responsibility for them, and structure is to provide clear expectations and consistency for mature behaviors (Holt & Neely, 2011). On the other hand, negative parenting attitude can be classi ed into rejection, coercion, and chaos, where rejection indicates behaviors accusing and showing hostility to children, coercion was behaviors of excessively interfering with children without explaining how and why things are done, and chaos means unpredictable or ambiguous behaviors (Akcinar & Baydar, 2014). Dorsch, Smith, and McDonough (2015) reported that positive parental support and attitude helped student-athletes build good relationships with others and develop life skills. For example, parents can give important lessons to their children for helping them learn life skills by interacting with them behaviorally and emotionally through sport (Dorsch et al., 2015). Moreover, the praise and understanding Cumming (2011) interpreted the inconsistent relationship between parenting attitude and life skills. For example, parenting attitudes such as coercion and instruction, which were perceived negatively by student-athletes, could be accepted or applied differently depending on the situation, environment, and experience. They indicated that there was no doubt that parenting attitude was an important antecedent for the life skills and transfer of student-athletes, but a more rational interpretation would be possible when more studies re ecting the characteristics of various environments, cultures, and sport would be accumulated. Mossman and Cronin (2019) also pointed out that more studies on positive or negative parenting attitudes would be needed because there were still not enough studies that statistically evaluated the relationship between parenting attitudes and life skills. Therefore, this study aimed to understand the relationship between the positive/negative parenting attitudes and the development and transfer of life skills by evaluating Chinese student-athletes, where people had been increasingly paying more attention to PYD recently. The research questions of this study were (a) "How does the positive parenting attitude of parents relate to sport life skills and transfer (model 1; paths A1, A2, & A3)?", (b) "How does the negative parenting attitude relate to sport life skills and transfer (model 2; paths B1, B2, & B3)?", and (c) "Do sport life skills mediate the relationship between positive/negative parenting attitude and life skills transfer (paths A2' & B2')?" The study model is shown in Fig. 1.

Participants
This study selected 270 student-athletes attending in Zhejiang, Guangdong, Jiangxi, Henan, and Shandong Provinces in China as study participants. The data of 257 participants (171 male and 86 female) analyzed after excluding the data of 13 participants, which were determined unfaithful or erroneous. Their mean age was 15.70 years (SD=1.44). They were participating in track and eld(n=54), basketball(n=68), soccer(n=73), and taekwondo(n=62).

Measures Parenting attitude
This study used the Parents as Social Context Questionnaire for Korean adolescents (PSCQ-KA) developed by Kim and Lee (2017) to measure the parenting attitude perceived by student-athletes. The theoretical framework of this scale is the autonomy, competence, and relatedness of the theory of basic psychological needs (Skinner et al., 2005). The parenting attitude of each need can be classi ed according to the bipolar model. In other words, autonomy is divided into autonomy support and coercion, competence is divided into structure and chaos, and relatedness is divided into warmth and rejection. Therefore, it is composed of 24 items: four items for three positive parenting attitude factors and three negative parenting attitude factors. Items were responded using a 5-point Likert scale.

Life skills
Life skills were measured by using the Korean life skills scale for sport (KLSSS), which was veri ed by Lim, Kwon, Yang, Yun, and Bae (2019) for student-athletes. The questionnaire measures the life skills obtained by student-athletes in a sport environment. The KLSSS consists of 18 items, including ve factors (i.e., goal setting, teamwork, interpersonal and social skills, time management, and leadership). Items were responded using a 5-point Likert scale.

Life skills transfer
Life skill transfer was measured by the Korean life skills transfer survey (KLSTS) validated by Lim et al. (2018). This test measures whether life skills learned in a sport environment are transferred and used in a non-sport environment. The scale consists of 38 items with 8 factors: helping each other, making healthy choice, appreciating diversity, meeting and greeting, goal setting, resolving con ict with friends, resolving con ict with siblings, and managing emotion. Items were responded using a 5-point Likert scale.

Translation of measures
The utilized measurement was translated from Korean to Chinese. The translation procedure was as follows. Firstly, the rst draft was translated by a group of experts (one professor of sport psychology, two doctors in sport psychology, and one doctor in contemporary Chinese literature). The one professor of sport psychology and two doctors in sport psychology reviewed the contents of the Korean version measurement tool, and a bilingual speaker (the doctor in contemporary Chinese literature) who is uent in Chinese and Korean translated it.
Secondly, the items translated into Chinese were consulted with a Chinese expert with experience in developing items and parts that were di cult to understand or inappropriate parts were modi ed. For example, the direct translation of "I can get along with children from multicultural families" was revised to "I can get along well with children from ethnic minority families" to re ect Chinese culture. Chinese nation refers to all 56 ethnic groups. The Chinese have many opportunities to meet friends from ethnic minority families.
The revised items were reviewed again by two bilingual users. They tested content validity through the translation-backtranslation process that translated the items translated into Chinese back to Korean and compared it with the original version. In this process, the parts that were considerably different from the original in meaning were revised through consultation with experts including bilingual users. For example, "Ask a question to a person you meet for the rst time comfortably" among life skill transfer items was backtranslated from Chinese into Korean and it was presented as "Ask a question to a person you meet for the rst time." This can be understood that you should ask a question to someone you never met before, contrary to the intention of the original item (i.e., you can talk to a stranger comfortably). Therefore, this item was re-translated as "I can talk with someone I meet for the rst time comfortably." After completing this process, the validity and reliability of the nally translated items were analyzed.
Validity and reliability of measuring tools Con rmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and reliability analysis (Cronbach' α) were conducted to secure the validity and reliability of the translated measurement tool. Q(χ 2 /df), CFI, TLI, RMSEA, and SRMR values were used for calculating the t of the model (Kline, 2015). It was determined as "very good t" when a Q value was 3 or less, CFI and TLI were .9 or more, and RMSEA and SRMR were .08 or less (Kline, 2015). In addition, the statistical signi cance of the regression coe cient was examined to secure validity. The CFA model of parenting attitudes (Q=2.38, CFI=.93, TLI=.92, RMSEA=.07, SRMR=.06) and life skills (Q=2.14, CFI=.95, TLI=.94, RMSEA=.07, SRMR=.04) showed that all t indices were above the criterion. In the case of life skill transfer (Q=2.47, CFI=.89, TLI=.88, RMSEA=.08, SRMR=.05), although CFI and TLI values did not meet the criterion, they were interpreted as "acceptable t" because they were approximate values and the remaining three t indices satis ed the criterion (Kline, 2015). Moreover, the Cronbach' α of each sub-factor was between .79 and .94.

Procedure
This study received research ethics approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB). The researcher contacted the o cials of Chinese physical education middle and high schools in advance for seeking cooperation to select study participants. The researcher also sent materials including the research participant recruitment announcement and consent form via e-mail to athletes and their parents through these o cials. A link containing an online questionnaire was also attached at the same time. However, it was emphasized that participation could not be forced by coaches or team o cials if athletes and parents did not want to participate in the study. In addition, the anonymity and intended use of the collected data were clearly explained. Online data collection was conducted from December 2020 to January 2021. The collected data were automatically coded, and the researcher downloaded the coded data online and used them for analysis.

Data analysis
This study used SPSS version 25 and AMOS version 25, statistical packages, to analyze the data. The analysis methods are as follows. First, among the collected data, data judged to be unfaithful or erroneous were excluded in a data cleaning process. Second, this study conducted descriptive statistics to grasp the general trend of the data and to test normality. Mean, standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis were calculated for descriptive statistics. For skewness and kurtosis, the criterion of skewness was an absolute value of 3 or less, and that of kurtosis was an absolute value of 8 or less, which were standard values implying a normal distribution (Kline, 2015). Third, Pearson's r was used to examine the correlation between the sub-factors constituting these three variables. Fourth, to evaluate the study questions, the structural model was tested using AMOS. Q(χ 2 /df), CFI, TLI, RMSEA, and SRMR were used as t indices as suggested by Kline (2015). After that, the path coe cient was examined, and bootstrapping was used to test mediating (indirect) effects. The number of sampling with replacement for bootstrapping was set to 2,000, and signi cance was determined using the two-tailed signi cance at 95% bias-corrected con dence interval. If 0 was not included in the derived con dence interval, the null hypothesis was rejected and the mediating effect was determined signi cant (Kline, 2015). All statistical signi cance was determined with a p-value less than .05.

Descriptive statistics and correlation
The results of this study showed that the mean ranged between 2.10 and 3.85, and the standard deviation ranged between .68 and to .89. Skewness ranged from -.39 to .88, and kurtosis ranged from -.63 to .85. Considering the criteria of skewness and kurtosis (skewness <3, and kurtosis <8), it was determined that the data satis ed all normality assumptions (Kline, 2015). Table 1 shows the correlation analysis results between each sub-factor. It was con rmed that all sub-factors of the three variables were signi cantly correlated. In particular, the three factors (warmth, autonomy, and structure) included in the positive parenting attitude were positively correlated with all life skill and transfer factors, while the negative parenting attitude factors (rejection, coercion, and chaos) were negatively correlated with them. The t indices of the model 1 were Q=2.65, CFI=.95, TLI=.94, RMSEA=.08, and SRMR=.04. Since all values met the criteria of "very good t", it was determined that they were suitable for this model (Kline, 2015).
The regression coe cient for each path is presented in Table 2  Testing mediation effects The lower bound of positive parenting attitude's con dence intervals was .28 and the upper bound of it was .55. Based on these values, the mediating effect was determined signi cant. Therefore, it was concluded that the positive parenting attitude perceived by student-athletes affected the transfer of life skills positively through sport life skills (β= .42, p<.001). On the other hand, the lower bound of negative parenting attitude's con dence intervals was -.44 and the upper bound of it was -.08. It was judged to be signi cant based on these values. Therefore, it was concluded that the negative parenting attitude perceived by student-athletes in uenced the transfer negatively through sport life skills (β= -.24, p<.01).

Discussion
The objective of this study was to examine the structural models of positive/negative parenting attitude, sport life skill, and transfer targeting Chinese student-athletes. This study collected data from 257 middle and high school students to achieve the objective. This study analyzed the collected data using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and structural equation modeling. Several studies have reported that intervention programs improved parenting attitudes. For example, Juffer, Bakermans-Kranenburg, and van IJzendoorn (2017) studied the promotion of parenting attitudes and reported that the Video-feedback Intervention to promote Positive Parenting and Sensitive Discipline (VIPP-SD) increased sensitive caregiving, improved parental self-e cacy, and provided more favorable attitudes toward caregiving and limit setting. Spencer, Topham, and King (2020) meta-analyzed 28 studies and also reported that online education programs for parents helped the promotion of positive parenting attitudes.
However, as indicated earlier, even though interest in signi cant others and the development of life skills for the youth have been increasing in the sport PYD eld, still relatively little interest has been given to the role of parents. In fact, many researchers (Camiré, Kendellen, Rathwell, & Turgeon, 2020; Turgeon, Camiré, & Rathwell, 2021) have evaluated PYD online education for coaches, but there is no content on parent education. As shown by the results of this study, a positive parenting attitude, indicating the active support and encouragement of parents, is most important. Therefore, it is necessary to develop and provide intervention means for parents of children who participate in sport to acquire useful information. One cause of this result could be the collectivism atmosphere in China. Chinese parents have a higher level of interest and involvement because they emphasize the college admission of their children more than the parents in the western culture (individualism) (Fong, 2007). It is because Chinese parents have a strong tendency to consider their children's success as a family glory. Yoshikawa, Way, and Chen (2012) analyzed the Chinese parents and found that parents' anxiety about their children's academic performance increased as their children advanced through school. Moreover, parents who feel anxious about their children's studies are more likely to show rejection, coercion, and inconsistent negative parenting attitudes toward their young children (14-18 years old). In other words, parents of studentathletes would force their children to win in games so that they can go to good colleges. A number of studies have proved that this negative parenting attitude results in the negative developmental outcomes of student-athletes such as aggression, antisocial behaviors, stress, and negative emotions (Dorsch et al.,

2016).
On the other hand, it is necessary to understand that the cultural background of China is rooted in Confucianism. In oriental cultures, vertical relationships according to age and position are implicitly applied. It can be also found in the parent-child relationship. Parents who raise children based on Confucian values tend to demand their children to behave as they want while keeping a certain distance from their children because they believe that they should show prestige as parents (Chuang, Glozman, Green, & Rasmi, 2018). In this home environment, student-athletes are more likely to do actions (e.g., excessive social comparison, and anti-social behavior) that impede their positive development without hesitation to receive attention and recognition from their parents.
In general, negative parenting attitudes tend to make student-athletes self-goal-oriented and intoxicated with the win-at-all-cost philosophy (Keegan, Harwood, Spray, & Lavallee, 2009). Under the atmosphere, student-athletes are more likely to experience negative development, as opposed to PYD, in order to improve their match performance or to meet their parents' needs or expectations. In particular, negative parenting attitudes adversely affect children's mental health such as depression as well as cause the It is commonly accepted that the behavior and language of parents are key variables greatly in uencing the development of children (Mossman & Cronin, 2019;Ramachandran, 2000). In particular, modeling presented by the social learning theory speci cally explains how parental behavior can affect the transfer of student-athletes' life skills (Bandura, 1991;Kerr et al., 2019). According to this theory, student-athletes imitate what they see and feel consciously or unconsciously. For example, student-athletes who see the inconsistent behavior of their parents (e.g., not keeping promises, not complying with rules, and changing behavior depending on their mood) are more likely to show a similar tendency. On the other hand, children of parents who set and implement clear rules and plans can learn elements (e.g., time management and goal setting) that help them develop life skills. In other words, the successful transfer of student-athletes' life skills is directly or indirectly in uenced by various parenting behaviors that are provided by their parents in daily life, such as opportunities to use the skills, support, rewards, and detailed explanations.
The relationship between positive/negative parenting attitudes and the development and transfer of student-athletes' life skills can also be found in neuroscience. In particular, the mirror neuron system theory suggests that parents can be the behavior mirror of their children (Oberman, Pineda, & Ramachandran, 2007). This is supported by the fact that the brain part used while acting and that activated when observing or imagining something are identical (Sternberg, 2016). For instance, when student-athletes observe their parents' behavior, the same brain part activated while acting is stimulated. As this stimulus accumulates, the possibility of a behavior increases. However, their brains are not yet able to determine whether the behavior of their parents is right or wrong. Regardless of the value of the observed parental behavior, the brain operates upon a command. Therefore, parents always need to examine their own actions and the consequences of them.

Future direction
First, although this study focused on the role of parents, the in uence of coaches cannot be ignored in the sport environment ( Therefore, future studies are needed to develop measuring tools that can evaluate whether parents intentionally teach life skills to their children. Third, it should be noted that student-athletes and parents interact. Interaction means that two parties affect each other. It is highly likely that student-athletes and their parents are more likely to interact with each other while developing and transferring life skills. The Actor-Partner Independence Model (APIM) can be used to statistically test this. APIM is a statistical technique commonly used to examine the relationship between variables that interact between a husband and a wife or between parents and a child. Therefore, future studies may employ different methodological approaches such as APIM to objectively evaluate the interaction between student-athletes and parents.