Violence, exclusion and the role of children and adolescents moral features in the sport domain: The save project

The prevention of violence and exclusion in the sport domain is one of the principal priorities of the European Union Programs. Sport Against Violence and Exclusion (SAVE) Project is an initiative co-founded by the Erasmus Plus Programme of the European Commission, whose aim is to train coach to recognize and manage violent and exclusion episodes in the sport situation. According to the psychological literature, one of the predictors of aggressiveness and antisocial tendencies is morality. In particular, for what concerns children, a less mature moral reasoning is associated to a greater tendency to aggress, while for adolescents, the moral atmosphere, in particular, the perception of the coach norms, seems to have the greatest influence on their behavior. For this reason, an in-depth training for coaches has been developed within SAVE Project. Furthermore, a scientific research involving seven countries has been conducted. The current Editorial Letter shows one year progress of SAVE Project . This and other initiatives, if supported by scientific community, could be an inspiration for broader policy reform

Prosocial and aggressive behavior occurrence in young athletes: Field research results in six European countries

Aggression and violence among youth areresearched as social phenomena in sport. This paper was designed to determine the occurrence of these behaviors as well as prosocial behaviorsamong young athletes. The current paper is a research report aiming to detect the frequency of aggressive behavior, social exclusion, prosocial behavior and cohesion in the youth environment, the frequency of personal experience of peer violence or social exclusion, and to evaluate cross-national differences in terms of occurrence of these phenomena. The field research was conducted in six European countries (Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Italy, Lithuania, and Serbia) on a sample of 482 children aged 6 to 16. The conducted questionnaire consisted of pre-existing scales and measures for specific behaviors and social aspects that formed the Youth Environment Assessment and Youth Characteristics Questionnaire. Previous personal experience of violence and social exclusion determined groups in the sample. One-way ANOVA and discriminant analysis were conducted to compare various variables and groups within the sample. The results have shown that aggressive and social exclusion behaviors are rare or very rare, predominantly in the form of verbal aggression in the sports club environment. The results of the conducted discriminant analysis indicate that prosocial and cohesion behaviors occur "quite often" to "often" among sports club athletes' samples. The percentage of athletes who have had personal experience of violence or social exclusion in the last two years and whose feeling of hurt by that experience was assessed as "a lot" or "fully" on the measurement scale is estimated to be approximately 25%. Mild cross-national differences emerged in the overmentioned variables, probably due to the sample specificity, or to cultural variety. The results indicate the need for longitudinal research on this topic since the sport is an environment in which cohesion can be developed among young athletes, but it is not free from social exclusion or aggression

Preventing violence and social exclusion through sport and physical activity: The SAVE project

Sport Against Violence and Exclusion (SAVE), a project cofounded by the Erasmus + Program of the European Union, seeks to prevent violent and socially exclusive behaviors through physical activity. The current editorial shows a range of possible interpretations of these two phenomena from both a psychological and sociological point of view, offering helpful methods to coaches who train children (ages 6 to 12)in grass-root sport clubs. Following a thorough analysis, partners from seven EU countries (Lithuania, Italy, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Austria, and Spain) will be able to identify skills and techniques for coaches to ensure inclusive training methods as well as to provide them with effective conflict resolution tools. Furthermore, both trainers and parents will have access to an online platform with useful information regarding these issues

Monitoring workload in elite female basketball players during the in-season phase: Weekly fluctuations and effect of playing time

Purpose: To assess the weekly fluctuations in workload and differences in workload according to playing time in elite female basketball players. Methods: A total of 29 female basketball players (mean [SD] age 21 [5] y, stature 181 [7] cm, body mass 71 [7] kg, playing experience 12 [5] y) belonging to the 7 women’s basketball teams competing in the first-division Lithuanian Women’s Basketball League were recruited. Individualized training loads (TLs) and game loads (GLs) were assessed using the session rating of perceived exertion after each training session and game during the entire in-season phase (24 wk). Percentage changes in total weekly TL (weekly TL + GL), weekly TL, weekly GL, chronic workload, acute:chronic workload ratio, training monotony, and training strain were calculated. Mixed linear models were used to assess differences for each dependent variable, with playing time (low vs high) used as fixed factor and subject, week, and team as random factors. Results: The highest changes in total weekly TL, weekly TL, and acute:chronic workload ratio were evident in week 13 (47%, 120%, and 49%, respectively). Chronic workload showed weekly changes ≤10%, whereas monotony and training strain registered highest fluctuations in weeks 17 (34%) and 15 (59%), respectively. A statistically significant difference in GL was evident between players completing low and high playing times (P = .026, moderate), whereas no significant differences (P > .05) were found for all other dependent variables. Conclusions: Coaches of elite women’s basketball teams should monitor weekly changes in workload during the in-season phase to identify weeks that may predispose players to unwanted spikes and adjust player workload according to playing time. © 2019 Human Kinetics, Inc