20 research outputs found
Using Carrots Not Sticks to Cultivate a Culture of Safeguarding in Sport
The power-driven, win-at-all-costs milieu of many sport settings can create fertile ground for athlete victimization and abuse (Roberts et al., 2020). Victory can in fact be so sovereign that abusive coaches and staff are enabled and âeven rewarded. . . in the name of winningâ (Armour, 2020). Athlete abuse prevention therefore requires systemic cultural change (Letourneau et al., 2014; Rhind and Owusu-Sekyere, 2017). Thus far, however, enacting this idea has eluded organizations in sport (Mountjoy et al., 2016; Harris and Terry, 2019; Kerr et al., 2019; Rhind and Owusu-Sekyere, 2020) as well as in other settings (National Academies of Sciences, 2018; Fort Hood Independent Review Committee, 2020). Moreover, authority figures in sport have historically hindered abuse prevention efforts. As activist reformer Brackenridge (2001) wrote, their âcollective denial effectively blinded [them] to the possibilities that they might actually be harboring or facilitating sexual [and others forms of] exploitationâ.
This opinion piece first identifies the limitations facing current approaches to athlete abuse prevention. It then offers a novel solution: an athlete-centered safeguarding strategy based on positive reinforcement theory (Skinner, 1953). This approach, as described in Komaki and Minnich (2016), will enable sports authorities to transform the culture, the most powerful predictor of victimization and abuse (National Academies of Sciences, 2018)
Acute and Chronic Musculoskeletal Injury in Para Sport: A Critical Review
Seated Para athletes sustain upper extremity injuries more commonly, whereas ambulant Para athletes frequently sustain lower extremity injuries. The upper extremity is the most commonly injured area in all Para athletes, unlike ablebodied athletes for whom lower extremity injuries predominate. Minor soft tissue injuries are the most common injuries among Para athletes, similar to injury patterns observed among able-bodied athletes. Football 5-a-side, powerlifting, Goalball, Wheelchair fencing, and Wheelchair rugby are the highest risk summer sports; ice hockey, alpine skiing, and snowboarding are the highest-risk winter Paralympic sports. Compared with elite Para athletes, recreational and youth Para athletes remain understudied in the literatur
Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Perceived Physical and Mental Health and Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors of People with Disabilities: Quantitative Analysis of the International Community Survey
This study aims to determine the perceived impact of the coronavirus pandemic on physical and mental health and healthy lifestyle behaviors in community-dwelling persons with disabilities, as compared to those without disabilities
Interpersonal Violence in Elite Sport: A Systematic Scoping Review Presented by the 2022-2023 International Olympics Committee Consensus Panel
Systematic Scoping Review Protoco
Breaking the Silence: Perceived Barriers to Safeguarding Child and Young Athletes in Uganda and a Rights-Based Framework for Positive Change
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
The journey to reporting child protection violations in sport: Stakeholder perspectives
Sport is a context within which human and childrenâs rights should be respected, promoted, and protected. Yet, research and high-profile cases demonstrate that this is not always the case. To understand the existence (or not) of reporting mechanisms for child protection violations in sport, as well as how existing reporting and response systems operate, the authors, with the support of the Centre for Sport and Human Rights, conducted research on current abuse disclosure and reporting pathways in sport. The purpose was two-fold: to describe global child protection systems and reporting mechanisms, and to identify major areas of stakeholder concern, in terms of effective case resolution, healing, and childrenâs experiences along reporting pathways in sport. Two sources of evidence were tapped. First, a rapid evidence assessment consisting of a literature review and an exploratory survey with 112 global stakeholders was conducted. Second, focus group interviews informed by the evidence assessment were held with nine athletes with lived experiences of abuse in youth sport and 13 global human and childrenâs rights experts primarily working outside of sport. Through this emergent research, a âpathwayâ or âjourneyâ to incident reporting in sport was developed, summarized as 5 âRsâ: Readiness, Recognition, disclosure and Reporting, Response, and Remedy, which are similar but not identical to existing trauma frameworks. Each stage of the reporting journey appears to be influenced by a range of contextual, organizational, relational, and individual factors. All told, the disclosure of child protection violations in sport is a complex and dynamic process where myriad factors interact to influence outcomes, including healing. Key recommendations include: (a) establishing a global Safety Net Environment in sport practice with varying applications from region to region, (b) building bridges with specific partner organizations to enhance child protection and safeguarding work in sport and (c) bringing safeguarding to unregulated sporting environments
Blind sportsâ blind spot: The global epidemiology of visual impairment against participation trends in elite blind para sport
Background: It remains unknown whether access to elite blind sports opportunities is globally balanced or matches the prevalence of blindness/visual impairment (VI). The primary objective of this study was to determine the rate of elite blind sports participation in each world region registered in the International Blind Sports Federationâs (IBSA) and to assess its association with the global and regional prevalence of blindness/VI. The secondary objective was to determine the association between other covariates, such as age, vision class, and sex, with the number of IBSA-registered athletes from each region.Methods: A baseline estimate of blindness/VI data was established and used when comparing participation rates to blindness/VI rates. Descriptive statistics were used to describe sports participation and associated co-variates.Results: Among 123 member countries registered in IBSA, 31 did not have any completed registrations in blind sports, of which 22 had a prevalence of blindness/VI higher than the global average. During the summer season 2019, 738 (29.52%) IBSA athletes were female and 1762 (70.48%) were male.Conclusions: These results suggest elite blind/VI sport participation is limited independently from blindness/VI prevalence. Increasing blind-friendly sport resources, especially in low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs), would improve the rate of elite sport participation among athletes with blindness/VI
Heads up on concussion in para sport
CITATION: Webborn, N. et al. 2018. Heads up on concussion in para sport. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 52(18):1157-1158, doi:10.1136/bjsports-2016-097236.The original publication is available at https://bjsm.bmj.com/Concussions to high-profile professional
athletes and the $1 billion court settlement
between the NFL in the USA and thousands
of former NFL players have brought
sports concussion to the top of news headlines.
1 The crux of the NFL case centred
around retired playersâ allegation that the
NFL did not warn them about the potential
long-term health impact of concussions.
Cases such as these alert sport
governing bodies to the medicolegal
importance of this issue and their responsibility
for player safety. For the
Para athlete, the International Paralympic
Committeeâs (IPC) term for a sportsperson
with an impairment, the concussion
debate struggles to garner attention. This
is partly because funding for epidemiological
research in this area is limited.Publishers versio
Heads up on concussion in para sport
CITATION: Webborn, N. et al. 2018. Heads up on concussion in para sport. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 52(18):1157-1158, doi:10.1136/bjsports-2016-097236.The original publication is available at https://bjsm.bmj.com/Concussions to high-profile professional
athletes and the $1 billion court settlement
between the NFL in the USA and thousands
of former NFL players have brought
sports concussion to the top of news headlines.
1 The crux of the NFL case centred
around retired playersâ allegation that the
NFL did not warn them about the potential
long-term health impact of concussions.
Cases such as these alert sport
governing bodies to the medicolegal
importance of this issue and their responsibility
for player safety. For the
Para athlete, the International Paralympic
Committeeâs (IPC) term for a sportsperson
with an impairment, the concussion
debate struggles to garner attention. This
is partly because funding for epidemiological
research in this area is limited.Publishers versio