Open AccessA Case Study of Junior Elite Tennis Players' and their Parent’s Self-Talk
Author(s) -
Véronique Boudreault,
Christiane Trottier,
Martin D. Provencher
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
the qualitative report
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.335
H-Index - 35
ISSN - 2160-3715
DOI - 10.46743/2160-3715/2019.4016
Subject(s) - elite , psychology , athletes , narrative , competition (biology) , social psychology , self , coaching , content analysis , developmental psychology , applied psychology , sociology , medicine , political science , politics , law , ecology , linguistics , philosophy , social science , psychotherapist , biology , physical therapy
Automatic self-talk of elite athletes provides valuable insight into their emotional experience and self-regulation strategies in competition. To date, there is a shortage of research examining elite junior athletes’ automatic self-talk in competition through a qualitative lens. Despite parents’ key role in the well-being and performance of their child, there is no study about junior elite athletes’ and their parents’ self-talk during a competition. Hence, the aim of this study is to examine the content of elite junior tennis players’ automatic self-talk as well as the content of their parents’ self-talk regarding their emotions during important matches. In each of the two cases under investigation, individual in-depth interviews were conducted with a tennis player and his or her most dedicated parent. The results were analyzed using Yin’s (2014) multiple-case study strategy and Polkinghorne’s (1995) narration inquiry strategy. An analysis of automatic self-talk content was conducted individually for each case, followed by an intra-case and cross-case analysis. The results reveal that each player’s and parent’s automatic self-talk is related to their own subjective emotional experience during the matches. The findings highlight similarities in athletes’ and parents’ self-talk patterns, reflecting the potential influence of parents in athletes’ performance pressure and their goal-directed self-talk strategies. The differences observed between the self-talk of players and their parents demonstrate the relevance of examining their profiles to better understand the origin of individual differences in self-talk.