Sexual harassment and abuse in sport: The research context

This special issue of the Journal of Sexual Aggression draws on the contributions to a Symposium on ‘Sexual Harassment in Sport – Challenges for Sport Psychology in the New Millennium’, held at the Xth Congress of the International Society for Sport Psychology, Skiathos, Greece from May 28th to June 2nd 2001. The symposium, which was organised by the authors of this editorial, was intended to move forward the international research agenda on sexual harassment and abuse in sport and to examine professional practice issues for sport psychologists. It was clear from the attendance of over 60 delegates at that symposium that international interest in this subject is growing. Further evidence of this came from the attendance of 26 members states – from Azerbaijan to Sweden - at a Council of Europe seminar on The Protection of Children, Young People and Women in Sport, held in Helsinki in September 2001

Researching British university sport initiations

The study of sport initiations is in its infancy. So far, the North American-centric research has focussed on ‘exposing and condemning’ morally unacceptable initiation activities, which are referred to as hazing. Hazing moral panics in North America has resulted in universities utilising sport initiation empirical research to construct anti-hazing policies; policies proven to be ineffective in banning sport initiations. The purpose of this research is to address some of the gaps in the knowledge of sport initiations. A two stage ethnographic research approach was utilised to collect information on British university sport initiations. An international student embedded himself as a student-athlete within a British university to learn the cultural meanings of a foreign sport culture and to possess an emic perspective. Semi-structured interviews were then conducted with key policy actors possessing differing organisational cultural perspectives (differentiational and fragmentational), specifically university staff and sport - rugby union, football, and track and field - club members from multiple higher education institutions. The researcher’s ethnographic confessional tale of his experience as a self-funded international student is combined with the data from interviewee participants to construct British university sport initiations as a resistance research topic.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceNational Organisation for the Treatment of Abusers (NOTA)GBUnited Kingdo

Defining appropriateness in coach-athlete sexual relationships: The voice of coaches

The sporting culture, with omnipotent coaches, fierce competition for recognition and funding, and ‘win at all cost’ ethos, creates an environment conducive to sexual exploitation of athletes. Recent increased public awareness and the development of child protection policies in sport have led to the questioning of previously accepted coach-athlete relationships. This study is an exploratory investigation into male swimming coaches’ perceptions of appropriateness of coach-athlete sexual relationships. Sexual relationships with athletes under the age of 16 were unanimously considered totally inappropriate. With regard to sexual relationships with athletes above the age of consent for heterosexual sex, opinions ranged from “totally inappropriate” to “it’s a question of civil liberties.” These results are discussed in relation to how coaches have adapted their own behaviours in the face of public scrutiny but are still reluctant to restrict the rights of their fellow coaches

Supporting children's narrative composition : the development and reflection of a visual approach for 7-8 year-olds

At the heart of present literacy, and narrative, learning paradigms are the "literate behaviours" usually associated with aspects of learning to encode and decode print. These paradigms have been criticized for placing written and verbal language in a privileged position. Furthermore, whilst an increasing number of theorists and educators are asking for the inclusion of multimodal approaches to learning narrative, current curricula, and the research that informs it, continue to be founded on "verbocentric" approaches and linear forms of narrative expression. Through the development and evaluation of a curricular approach to narrative learning for 7-8 year-olds based on the visual arts, this study aims to ascertain whether there is a need for broader conceptions of narrative as well as for complementary modes of narrative composition than those currently being used in primary schools. Documentation in the form of the children‘s painted narratives and transcripts of the children's oral accounts of their narratives was the major component of data collection. Individual and small group interviews and participant observation were supplementary sources to assist in the interpretation of the narrative paintings the children composed. The children‘s narratives were analysed using a narratological semiotic model, which divides narrative into 'discourse' and 'story' and distinguishes between the 'content' and 'form' of each of these elements.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Extreme volunteering : a holistic perspective on international women sport volunteers

This thesis explores the lives of a group of fifteen exceptional women who were dedicated to the cause of advancing girls and women in sport and physical activity. Over several decades, they worked in a voluntary capacity to transform women in sport through practice and policy development. Moreover, they aligned such unpaid work with personal and local experiences of volunteering that eventually led to their participation in international sport circles and policies. The key settings for their voluntary service came from their roles in the emergence and maintenance of two international women‘s sport organisations – International Association of Physical Education and Sport for Girls and Women (IAPESGW) and WomenSport International (WSI). In addition, their voluntary roles were so substantial that they were inextricably interwoven within all aspects of their lives. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to explore the participants‘ relationships with sport volunteering, in the particular settings of IAPESGW and WSI, whilst analysing the role of volunteering in their lives. The study utilised a holistic framework to gain an in-depth understanding about the women‘s commitment to the cause and how volunteering fits into their lifestyle. As there were no models from the sport volunteering field that were appropriate for this study, the research drew upon and developed Hustinx and Lammertyn‘s (2003) non-sport model called the Collective and Reflexive Styles of Volunteering (SOV). The SOV was valuable because it offered a multi-dimensional approach to explain how, why, and when the participants got involved with advancing women‘s sport and physical activity, and how their involvement related to and influenced their wider lifestyles. A critical realist and social constructionist philosophy was employed to have a greater understanding of the women‘s realities, and life history interviews were conducted to gain a greater understanding about how they constructed their knowledge about themselves, sport, and the world around them. The study illustrated the complexity of the women‘s volunteer participation. The findings suggested that their sport passion and identity guided many of their actions and activities throughout their life, such as choices for higher education and within professional work. In addition, the findings showed that it was their personal experiences and gained knowledge about gender disadvantages in sport that initially stimulated and then repeatedly reinforced their interests and commitment. Although these had strong impacts on the women‘s entrance into and commitment to the cause, the findings highlighted that the women had to identify the conditions of their relationships, family, and types of paid work to be compatible with levels of volunteering. The study concluded that sport researchers can benefit from examining volunteers from a holistic perspective to gain a better understanding of the conditions under which individuals make such an extreme, voluntary contribution to sport.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

The characteristics of sexual abuse in sport: A multidimensional scaling analysis of events described in media reports

Most research on sexual abuse has been conducted within family settings (Fergusson & Mullen, 1999). In recent years, following several high profile convictions and scandals, research into sexual abuse has also encompassed institutional and community settings such as sport and the church (Gallagher, 2000; Wolfe et al., 2003). Research into sexual abuse in sport, for example, began with both prevalence studies (Kirby & Greaves, 1996; Leahy, Pretty & Tenenbaum, 2002) and qualitative analyses of the processes and experiences of athlete sexual abuse (Brackenridge, 1997; Cense & Brackenridge, 2001, Toftegaard Nielsen, 2001). From such work, descriptions of the modus operandi of abusers in sport, and the experiences and consequences for athlete victims, have been provided, informing both abuse prevention work and coach education. To date, however, no study has provided empirical support for multiple associations or identified patterns of sex offending in sport in ways that might allow comparisons with research-generated models of offending outside sport. This paper reports on an analysis of 159 cases of criminally defined sexual abuse, reported in the print media over a period of 15 years. The main aim of the study was to identify the nature of sex offending in sport focusing on the methods and locations of offences. The data were analysed using multidimensional scaling (MDS), as a data reduction method, in order to identify the underlying themes within the abuse and explore the inter-relationships of behaviour, victim and context variables. The findings indicate that there are specific themes that can be identified within the perpetrator strategies that include ‘intimate’, ‘aggressive’, and ‘’dominant’ modes of interaction. The same patterns that are described here within the specific context of sport are consistent with themes that emerge from similar behavioural analyses of rapists (Canter & Heritage, 1990; Bishopp, 2003) and child molester groups (Canter, Hughes & Kirby, 1998). These patterns show a correspondence to a broader behavioural model – the interpersonal circumplex (e.g., Leary 1957). Implications for accreditation and continuing professional education of sport psychologists are noted

Homophobia and heterosexism: Spanish Physical Education teachers’ perceptions

Physical education is traditionally a heteronormative environment, despite current studies highlighting the existence of positive changes in sport towards sexual diversity. In Spain, physical education teachers’ attitudes towards sexual minorities are an under-researched area. The current study identifies physical education teachers’ perceptions towards homophobia and heterosexism in their lessons, raising questions as to whether societies are hostile or more tolerant in regards to gays and lesbians in sport. This experimental and cross-sectional descriptive research involved 170 Physical Education teachers from mixed schools, using a modified version of the original questionnaire of homophobia and heterosexism perceptions by Morrow and Gill (2003). Results show heterosexist and homophobic behavior is apparent in physical education lessons, with teachers aware of these behaviours. Furthermore, it is highlighted that students use homosexually-themed language as an instrument to discriminate against gays and lesbians. This language use is not common among teachers, although when it is present, it is clearer and more frequent amongst male teachers