Despite the well-recognised benefits of sport, there are also negative influences on athlete health, well-being and integrity caused by non-accidental violence through harassment and abuse. All athletes have a right to engage in 'safe sport', defined as an athletic environment that is respectful, equitable and free from all forms of non-accidental violence to athletes. Yet, these issues represent a blind spot for many sport organisations through fear of reputational damage, ignorance, silence or collusion.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe current article reports on the first large-scale prevalence study on interpersonal violence against children in sport in the Netherlands and Belgium. Using a dedicated online questionnaire, over 4,000 adults prescreened on having participated in organized sport before the age of 18 were surveyed with respect to their experiences with childhood psychological, physical, and sexual violence while playing sports. Being the first of its kind in the Netherlands and Belgium, our study has a sufficiently large sample taken from the general population, with a balanced gender ratio and wide variety in socio-demographic characteristics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis paper compares the prevalence of sexual harassment and abuse among 660 Norwegian elite female athletes and an age-matched control sample of nonathletes. It also explores differences in the prevalence of harassment and abuse in sport and work or school settings and compares harassment and abuse perpetrated by male authority figures and peers in these different contexts. No differences were found between the athletes and controls in overall prevalence of sexual harassment or abuse.
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