This study examined the social representations of victory and defeat held by parents of teenage athletes who participated in a high performance sports in the city of Recife. The developmental stage of adolescence is understood based on sociohistorical psychology, while the social representations theory constituted the frame of reference for approaching individuals from different social-cultural contexts, places, experiences, beliefs, knowledge, and shared feelings. A multi-methodological orientation was employed with a wide range of resources for the collection and progressive analysis of data. In this study, participants involved 101 teenager athletes, who participated in a high performance sport, either swimming or volleyball. The tools utilized included a free association questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. EVOC 2000 and Bardin's thematic content analysis were used for data analysis. Representations of victory were identified from the parents for the following dimensions: personal and motivational and affective–emotional. In addition to those two dimensions, the technical dimension was also identified for the parental representation of defeat. The victory meaning for parents was not restricted just to the sport area, it was extended to other contexts such as education level, professional and personal growth. The value of defeat for parents was represented as an opportunity for learning and overcoming situations to the teenage athlete. However, they also showed the need for affective support from their families to deal with self-blame in the event of failure.
Social representations; High performance sport; Victory; Defeat