2.1. Participants

Sampling and recruitment were by convenience, provided that the inclusion criteria were met. Since the project contemplates the testing of a theoretical model through the analysis of structural equation models, the sample size was determined using the following formula: 1/2 × q × (q + 1), where q is the number of observed variables.

Inclusion criteria were that the child was affiliated to a league and the age range was between 10 and 16 years. To homogenize the study, the father was contacted, as according to the literature, it is the father who exerts the greatest influence in the sporting context e.g., [7]. No parents with more than one child in the league were detected. In order to be able to match the father’s questionnaire with the corresponding child, both were asked for the same code, consisting of adding the initials of the child’s first and last name and the date of birth.

Out of a total of 538 parents (all parents whose children were enrolled in the league), 1% (n = 5) chose not to participate in the study. The final sample size was five hundred and thirty-three fathers ranging from 31 to 68 years old (M = 44.30, SD = 5.18) and their sons (533 male baseball players) aged between 10 and 16 years old (M = 13.09, SD =1.68) participated in this study. The full sample of 1066 participants was represented in the hypothesized model. The players belonged to nine youth baseball leagues from Hermosillo, Mexico.