Many children grow up dreaming – or maybe even expecting – that they will become a star in football, basketball or whatever their favorite sport may be.

Most parents have more realistic expectations of their children’s future athletic achievement, a new study finds. But a substantial minority believes their kids will beat the odds and become collegiate, pro or even Olympic athletes.

In a survey of 785 American parents, 34% thought it was somewhat or very likely that their child would become a small-college athlete, 27% thought it was likely their child would become a college scholarship athlete, and 17% thought it was somewhat or very likely their child would become a professional or Olympic athlete.

“Most parents seem to have realistically pessimistic expectations about how much their children might achieve in sports,” said Chris Knoester, co-author of the study and professor of sociology at The Ohio State University.

“But there were sometimes wide differences in expectations depending on a variety of factors, including parents’ race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, neighborhood they lived in, sports fandom and whether they thought their child had a strong identity as an athlete.”

Knoester conducted the study, published recently in the Journal of Sport and Social Issues, with lead author Christopher McLeod, associate professor of health and human performance at the University of Florida.

Read the complete article by Jeff Grabmeier at OSU News.