Voices on the Sidelines: Why Parent Education Leads to Safer Sport

The U.S Center for SafeSport last year released their 2025 National Coaches Survey Report, which focused on Building Safe Sport Together. The report was the result of a community engagement effort from the Center to seek input from key stakeholders across the United States, which highlighted the need to survey coaches and gain a critical understanding of the experiences of and challenges faced by coaches.

The survey found that 56% of coaches who experienced verbal harassment or abuse while coaching revealed that most of the mistreatment came from the parents of players/athletes. To further highlight this, 10% of coaches cited parents as a key reason for leaving coaching entirely. 

Common frustrations were the difficulty of managing and working with parents, particularly parents’ negative attitudes and inability to hold their children accountable. In serious cases, some coaches even reported parents displaying abusive behaviors. Coaches also held a strong belief that parents can make or break the culture of the sport—i.e. parent behavior directly impacts safe sport outcomes. 

When it came to creating safer sporting environments, coaches were clear about what needed to be done. Parents are a key part of the solution.

Many parents come into youth sport with little guidance on their role. As a result, this can lead to gaps in their understanding of: 

• Appropriate sideline behavior
• Sport expectations, codes of conduct, and SafeSport policies
• How their words and actions affect athletes, coaches, officials, volunteers, and other parents
• How to support development over achievement or performance 
• How to engage with Coaches in a positive manner
• How to check-in with their children in a positive manner following their match / tournament / event

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Without education, parents often rely on personal experience or allow their emotions to get the best of them, leading to conflict, pressure, or unsafe behavior. 

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The impact of this is significant.  38.0% of coaches agreed or strongly agreed that a lack of understanding among parents creates a barrier to implementing or upholding athlete safety policies at their organization.

When asked about what could be done to create safer sporting environments, coaches identified the need to increase access to educational and training resources to parents (21.4%) and improve parent behaviour (34.4%). Through these two key areas, coaches believed would lead to better athlete and coach safety.

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So what sort of training is available? Where to begin? At etrainu, our strong partnerships with global sporting organizations mean that all our training is designed to support parent education. And it starts with teaching coaches how to effectively engage with parents.

Working With Parents in Sport (WWPIS) focuses on creating positive experiences for children and making sport a lifelong endeavour. Their Engage: Building Positive Relationships with Young Athletes’ Parents course provides coaches with practical strategies for collaborating with parents in their sport and for effectively communicating with them to build positive relationships.

Similarly, our partnership with US Youth Soccer and the USYS University provides multiple courses for parents. With courses like No More Sideline Slip-Ups, Respect the Game: Your Behavior Matters. More, parents learn how to take a more active and positive role in their children’s sports, while ensuring their safety. 

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It’s important to note these findings and the push for better parent education do not aim to criticise parents. Instead, they seek to educate, align expectations, and promote shared responsibility. In doing so, coaches and parents can ensure young athletes have fun and, more importantly, stay safe.