Supporting Athletes Through the Junior-to-Senior Transition in Swiss Elite Sport: A Qualitative Study of Parents' Transition Challenges, Coping Strategies, and Support Wishes.

Abstract

The junior-to-senior transition (JST) represents a critical phase in athletic development, characterized by increased performance demands, heightened uncertainty, and elevated risk for psychological strain. While research has largely centered athletes' perspectives, parents are pivotal yet underexplored actors in supporting this process. In Swiss elite sport, parental support unfolds within a decentralized, club- and federation-based environment marked by strong dual-career pressures and uneven access to support. The aim of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how parents experience supporting their children through the JST in this context, focusing on parental transition challenges, helpful coping strategies, and support wishes. Four focus groups with 21 parents (17 mothers, 4 fathers) across individual and team sports were analyzed using data-near thematic analysis at a predominantly semantic level, guided by a pragmatist orientation informed by a contextualist lens. Parents described supporting their children through the JST as emotionally demanding and systemically pressured, involving dual-career overload, financial and organizational strain, and ongoing renegotiation of parental roles. Helpful coping strategies included peer exchange, meaning-making, and reliance on trusted allies within the athlete ecosystem. Parents expressed wishes related to stronger safeguarding and ethical accountability, improved coordination between sport and education, greater transparency and equity, and formal recognition of parents as partners in the transition process. The findings position the JST not only as an athletic transition, but also as a period with substantial consequences for parents within the athlete's support environment, and underline the need for structured, ethically grounded, parent-inclusive support in Swiss elite sport.