Search Results (9)

Background: This study examines child abuse in sports environments through Ecological Systems Theory, revealing the multifaceted nature of abuse and the impact of environmental factors at various levels. Methods: With a study design using the phenomenology approach, a qualitative research method, data were collected through semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 11 Turkish participants, including 5 athletes, 4 coaches, and 2 academics with coaching experience in Sports Sciences. Thematic analysis was used to evaluate the data, categorizing findings into four levels: microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem. Results: Findings show that at the microsystem level, children are exposed to physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, as well as neglect, largely through interactions with coaches and teammates. Physical abuse includes non-contact forms, like dehydration and forced training, and contact abuse, such as violence from coaches and peers. Emotional abuse manifests through psychological pressures and verbal attacks, creating a toxic environment. At the mesosystem level, excessive parental trust in coaches reduces oversight, leaving children vulnerable. In the exosystem, inadequate supervision of coaches and a lack of response to abuse cases by sports clubs worsen the issue. At the macrosystem level, cultural norms and societal attitudes normalize abuse, especially affecting female athletes. Conclusions: The study highlights the need for comprehensive interventions, including family awareness, stricter coach oversight, and robust policies within sports organizations to protect children. By emphasizing the interaction of individual, familial, and societal factors, this research underscores the importance of collective efforts to ensure safer sports environments. Full article

The prevalence of sexual harassment and abuse in school sport, specifically by coaches against their athletes, remains a concerning and pervasive issue. In an attempt to better understand and prevent specific coach-behaviours associated with such sexual misconduct, researchers have developed the Sexual Violence Questionnaire in Sport. While the reliability of this measurement tool has been tested in Anglo-Saxon cultural contexts, it is not known whether the questionnaire is applicable to other cultural contexts. This study aimed to analyse the internal consistency and reliability of the questionnaire on sexual harassment in sport, originally designed and developed in English. A sample of 146 (52 female, 94 male) undergraduate students from a university in the Basque Country participated in this cross-sectional study. The questionnaire was administered twice over a two-week period to assess test–retest reliability. The internal consistency of the Sexual Violence Questionnaire in Sport was high, with Cronbach’s alpha values of 0.891 for perceptions and 0.813 for experiences across all participants. Gender-specific analysis showed similar reliability, with females having slightly lower alpha values for perceptions. Although significant differences were observed between the test and the retest on eight perception items and one experience item, Cohen’s kappa analysis indicated agreement on all items; however, some of them were low (e.g., 0.13). In conclusion, the study highlights the questionnaire’s overall reliability and suggests its effectiveness as a tool for measuring sexual violence in sport within the Spanish context. Nonetheless, the findings of this study underscore the need for further research to enhance the instrument’s stability and to better understand gender differences in perceptions and experiences of sexual violence in sport contexts. Full article

Aims: This study aimed at examining coach-athlete violence based on the retrospective reports of adults who had been athletes as children and adolescents; predict variables that contribute to the existence of such violence; describe difficulties that the participants encountered as young athletes following such violence; and reveal the outcomes of such violence on their emotions and behaviors, in the past and present. Methodology: The applied mixed methods comprised quantitative self-reporting questionnaires and qualitative interviews. The former included 440 participants (mean age 27.6) who had trained for at least one year in a sports union youth department; the latter included 14 participants (aged 23–37). These competitive athletes came from eight branches of sports. The interviews were analyzed based on the Narrative Approach. Results: According to the quantitative study, all participants had experienced coach violence at least once during their career, mainly psychological violence and neglect, followed by physical violence. Sexual violence was least reported. The age of their retirement from sports and the number of coaches that they had had were significant predictors of violence. Thematic analysis of the qualitative interviews resulted in six types of coach-athlete violence: (1) psychological violence; (2) verbal violence; (3) starvation and food fattening; (4) non-proportional punishing; (5) physical violence; and (6) sexual violence. Conclusions: It is vital that coach-athlete violence is addressed in public discourse, that the topic of young athletes’ safety is introduced into coaching education, and that a position holder is nominated to be in charge of such safety in all sports organizations. Full article

There has been a growing interest around the broader effects of psychopathic traits, particularly in relation to deviant behaviors and the notion of so-called “successful psychopathy”. As significant sociocultural touchstones, sporting events are often characterized by competitiveness and a sense of prestige. However, there has been limited attention towards psychopathic traits across recreational, amateur, and elite sports. Accordingly, we conducted a narrative review synthesizing primary observations on this topic, searching keywords in Scopus, APA PsychNet, and PubMed. Twenty-four academic papers were included in our results, which we thematized around demographic groups, namely: athletes and sport-adjacent non-athletes (i.e., coaches and spectators). Based on empirical findings from the reviewed papers, psychopathic traits could have medicolegal and forensic implications in relation to substance use, aggression, and violence. These could intersect with wider issues around doping, cheating, foul play, and have adverse outcomes for fellow participants, team dynamics, and spectators. Interestingly, our review also indicates that psychopathic traits may have correlations with determination and achievement in sport, echoing developing ideas around “successful psychopathy” in other domains. As such, increased awareness from all stakeholders and further multidisciplinary exchanges are vital to better understand the effects of psychopathic traits in sporting frameworks and their wider consequences. Full article

Over 8 million children in Uganda are considered vulnerable to various forms of maltreatment, of which sexual violence is experienced by 26 girls daily. In the context of Ugandan sport, the types and magnitude of violence against child and young athletes is yet to be determined. The study aims to: (1) examine the barriers associated with prioritizing and implementing policies and programs to safeguard child and young athletes against harassment and abuse in Uganda as perceived by local stakeholders across Ugandan sport, and (2) offer a rights-based framework for implementing positive change in sport safeguarding in Uganda and other countries of similar cultural backgrounds. The study includes eleven (n = 11) purposively selected participants: athletes, coaches, medical practitioners, and policy makers, all born and living in Uganda. This is a qualitative inquiry that involves online in-depth interviews. The Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) guides our exploratory analysis to examine context-specific barriers to better inform key recommendations for interventions. A rights-based, multi-contextual framework (TRAUMA) with multi-stakeholder engagement is proposed as a culturally tailored response for the safeguarding of child and young athletes in Uganda and other similar cultural backgrounds. Full article

Purpose: This study aimed to explore links between child maltreatment (CM) and experiences of interpersonal violence (IV) in sport among adolescent sport participants. To our knowledge, no studies have yet considered this association. This is surprising given that the literature outside of sport clearly shows that CM is related to revictimization in adolescence and adulthood. Methods: The sample consists of 983 adolescents aged 14 to 18 years old participating in an organized sport. They completed a self-report survey in class at six Canadian schools assessing CM and IV in sport. Logistic regressions were performed to examine the associations between CM and IV in sport. Results: Child physical abuse, emotional abuse, and exposure to domestic violence were significantly associated with psychological violence and neglect in sport. Exposure to domestic violence was the only form of CM significantly associated with physical violence in sport. Child sexual abuse and neglect were significantly associated with sexual violence in sport, while child emotional abuse and exposure to domestic violence were significantly associated with peer violence in sport. Physical abuse was the only form of CM significantly associated with coach violence. Child physical abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, and exposure to domestic violence were positively associated with violence from parents in sport. Conclusions: Considering the associations between CM and IV in sport, further investigations are necessary on how to prevent revictimization. It also highlights the importance of athlete-centered and trauma-informed practices in sport. Implications and Contribution: This study was the first, to our knowledge, to show the relationship between CM and the experience of IV in organized sport, as reported by 983 Canadian adolescents. Our findings reveal different associations depending on the type of IV (physical, sexual, psychological, or neglect) and the perpetrators (peers, coaches, or parents). Full article

In recent years, an increasing number of cases of sexual violence (SV) in organized sports have received worldwide attention. To counteract the emergence of SV, various preventive measures have been developed and implemented. However, the effectiveness of these preventive measures has not been adequately tested. To close this gap, the purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a workshop intervention that was conducted within the context of organized sports in Germany. The one-day workshop intervention was conducted with 137 stakeholders in organized sports (coaches, athletes, board members, and parents). The intervention was evaluated by measuring the short-term (immediately before and after the workshop) and long-term effects (six months after the workshop). The analyses showed positive short-term (such as on attitudes toward SV and the intention to act against SV) and positive long-term effects (on knowledge about SV and a culture of prevention in the sports club and club behavior) of the workshop. The workshop was effective in the short term and the long term regarding the most relevant indicators (i.e., taking measures against SV). Therefore, it can be concluded that more workshops should be held in clubs in order to sensitize stakeholders and foster measures against SV in sports. Full article

Initiatives to safeguard athletes from interpersonal violence (IV) are rapidly growing. In Belgium, knowledge on the magnitude of IV in sport is based on one retrospective prevalence study from 2016 (n = 2.043 adults), involving those who had participated in organized sport for up to 18 years. Data on victimization rates in current youth sport populations are lacking. This study aimed to investigate the magnitude of IV in a sample of 769 athletes (aged between 13 and 21), using the Violence Towards Athletes Questionnaire (VTAQ). All types of IV were prevalent in this sample, ranging from 27% (sexual violence) to 79% (psychological violence and neglect). Boys reported significantly more physical violence, while girls reported significantly more sexual violence. IV perpetrated by peer athletes was reported to the same degree as IV perpetrated by a coach (70%), while IV perpetrated by a parent in the context of sport was somewhat less common, but still prevalent (48%). These findings, including factors associated with elevated exposure rates, can serve as a baseline measurement to monitor and evaluate current and future safeguarding interventions in Belgian sport. Full article

The interpretation of the evolutionary theory prevailing in sport, based on the approach that the strongest survive, varies with the rules inherent in the criminal world, forbidding to “take out” negative information about interrelationships, in this case, outside the team or group. Such traditionally established culture puts pressure on athletes to suffer from bullying and follow the “silence law”. In the long run, this turns into a precondition for unsafe environment for athletes, which, due to negative consequences for the individual, can be identified as threats to social sustainability at the individual level. Such a situation is also indirectly approved by the heads and coaches of organizations. The latter, who lack competencies to resolve conflict situations, are left to solve arising problems on their own and do not receive any support from the management of organizations. Therefore, the aim of this research is to reveal the factors determining the specificity, emergence, and development of bullying and harassment in sport as threats to social sustainability at the individual level. The research was conducted using a semi-structured interview method with eight coaches representing team, individual, and duel sport branches. Inductive content analysis served as the basis for the data analysis. Research results disclosed factors determining the specificity of emergence of bullying and harassment in sport and hindering the entrenchment of social sustainability in sport at the individual level. The results revealed the euphemisms distinguished by coaches, which, in sport, have a positive connotation, such as “combativeness” and “sports anger” instead of the term “aggression”. It was identified that coaches named aggressors as “harder players”, “confident players”, “active persons”, “players-torpedoes”, “emotional players”, and “competitive players”. Sports competition is justified in various forms. The emergence of bullying and harassment is grounded on “mastery differences”, it is stated that abusive actions are experienced by “physically weak” players, while physical actions used by athletes are called “mischief”; verbal actions are “raillery”. In addition, inadequate preparation of Lithuanian coaches to respond to bullying and harassment in their trained teams or groups on time and appropriately was identified. It turned out that sports organizations are not particularly interested in organizing trainings for prevention of destructive interrelations and intervention. Such kind of in-service training is left to the coach’s initiative. Full article