From high school sports to youth athletics: The 'crushing' pressure on kids that parents need to know

Major League Pickleball adviser Anne Worcester shares what makes Pickleball a unique sport while ‘Fox & Friends Weekend’ co-hosts Will Cain and Pete Hegseth play a game on Fox Square.

Many American kids are participating in multiple team sports today. Yet they're not only navigating packed daily schedules, they're dealing with high stress levels.

While participation in team sports has been associated with better mental health in children, parents must take care to avoid becoming critical or over-involved in their children’s sports experience, according to findings from the University of Italy published last year in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

"Our findings suggest that excessive parental involvement can cause pressure on children who would prefer parental participation characterized by praise and understanding," the study indicated.

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"A balance between a [supportive] involvement without putting too much pressure is needed by the parents," it added.

Jason Sacks, president of Positive Coaching Alliance in San Francisco, said this pressure on kids can be blamed in part on today's "win-at-all-costs" culture.

"Win or lose, I knew I was supported and [that] they loved me and were proud of me," one former high school athlete told Fox News Digital about his parents and how they handled his sports team involvement. (AP Photo/Salina Journal, Tom Dorsey)

"The most important thing about sports is becoming the results, not the experience," he told Fox News Digital in a recent phone interview.

Kids are now forced to ponder, he said, on a regular basis questions such as: "Are we number one? Who's the best player? How am I