9 Beliefs and values

As we have learned, parents influence their child’s sporting experience in a variety of ways. Figure 1 below provides an illustration of the key features of Eccles’ expectancy-value theory and how parents’ values and beliefs influence behaviour towards their child, which in turn shapes the child’s own values and beliefs, and ultimately their performance and behaviour.

Figure 1

Source: Horn, T. and Horn, J. (2007)