Peer-reviewed article

Jiwa-style parenting and the familial turn of youth sport consumption: a qualitative case study of a commercial training setting in urban China.

Li Y · 3 Jul 2026

Abstract

Background Youth sport participation is increasingly shaped by family decisions, paid training opportunities, and unequal access to sport resources. Within urban Chinese family education contexts, jiwa-style parenting has extended beyond academic learning and entered children's sport participation, making training, equipment, competition experiences, and coaching part of family planning for child development. However, less is known about how this family logic operates within everyday commercial youth sport training settings. Methods This qualitative case study draws on 20 days of participant observation and semi-structured interviews with 18 adult parents in one market-oriented youth fitness club in Guangzhou, China. The study used thematic analysis informed by grounded theory principles. Coding moved from repeated reading of Chinese interview transcripts and field notes, to initial coding, focused coding, theme development, and repeated comparison with the original materials. The analysis examined how parents interpreted the value of sport, how commercial training and school-related sport assessment shaped family decisions, and how differences in family resources affected access to sport opportunities. Results Four interconnected themes were identified in this case. First, parents often reinterpreted children's sport participation as family sport investment linked to health, discipline, school-related assessment, and perceived future advantage. Second, some sport projects, equipment, and competition experiences became symbolic markers through which families expressed parenting competence and social distinction. Third, some parents became involved in pressure-driven training because of physical education assessment, peer comparison, and market promotion, even when they were concerned about cost, fatigue, or children's interest. Fourth, access to coaches, venues, training quality, and competition opportunities appeared to be differentiated by family resources. Conclusion This study does not claim to represent youth sport consumption in urban China as a whole. Instead, it offers case-based qualitative insights into how youth sport consumption may be reorganized through family investment, symbolic distinction, pressure-driven training, and unequal opportunity access within one observed commercial training setting. The findings suggest that school physical education, community sport provision, and youth sport training governance should attend not only to participation expansion, but also to children's agency, family burden, and participation equity.