AASP Newsletter - November 2019

Erin Willson

Erin Willson, MSc, Olympian (Artistic Swimming), University of Toronto, Canada

National team athletes are often held in high regard because of their talent and performance success and praised while representing their country on an international stage. These athletes are dedicated, hard-working, individuals who are driven to continually push themselves to their limits, both physically and mentally. While these athletes are expected to produce the best performance possible, the methods used to elicit these performances are rarely questioned.  Winning has become synonymous with “win-at-all-costs” and athletes are expected to do “whatever it takes” to be the best (Coakley, 2004; Doherty, 1999; Stirling & Kerr, 2013).

However, this performance-outcome culture can encourage tolerance and normalization of various forms of maltreatment, thus increasing athletes’ vulnerability to harm. 

Maltreatment is understood to be all types of physical and/or emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, neglect and exploitation, which results in actual or potential harm to health, survival, development or dignity in a context of a relationship of responsibility, trust or power (World Health Organization, 2010). Examples of maltreatment in sport include sexual, physical, and psychological abuse, neglect, harassment, bullying and hazing. The current study assessed the prevalence of various forms of maltreatment experienced amongst current and retired National Team athletes in Canada. The intent was to gain a snapshot of the current landscape of experiences of maltreatment at the national level of Canadian sport, and to acquire baseline data against which to assess the impact of future preventative and intervention initiatives. An anonymous online survey was developed by researchers at the University of Toronto, in partnership with AthletesCAN, an independent association for Canadian national team athletes working to develop leaders and to promote an athlete-centered sport system.  

While sexual abuse has received the most media and scholarly attention, psychological harm was the most frequently experienced form of harm in our study. This finding is consistent with the results from prevalence studies conducted in other countries (Alexander et al., 2011; Vertommen et al., 2016). Psychological harm is manifested through being repeatedly yelled at in a critical manner, put down, humiliated or embarrassed, intentionally ignored due to poor performance, criticized as a person, and receiving criticism about weight and the body. These behaviors are most frequently perpetuated by coaches as tactics for improving sport performance. Unfortunately, these behaviors are often normalized as just “part of sport” and methods to “make athletes tougher.” Athletes confirmed these beliefs by expressing “the high-performance director thinks that the tougher the coach is the better we will become, so horrible conditions and abuse were not just tolerated but in fact, glorified.”

Behaviors of neglect, which are too often overlooked in discussions about maltreatment, were the second most frequently reported form of harm. Our findings indicated that neglect most often took the form of a lack of care for health by being forced to train while injured or exhausted, training in unsafe conditions, and not having adequate support of basic needs. We suggest that from a cultural perspective, many of these behaviors are seen as simply what it takes to be a high performing athlete, and therefore have become a normal part of training experiences, viewed as being necessary for athletic success. 

Importantly, significant positive correlations resulted between all forms of harm - psychological, physical, sexual abuse and neglect - and negative mental health outcomes including thoughts about engaging in disordered eating behaviors, engaging in disordered eating behaviors, thoughts about engaging in self-harming behaviors, engaging in self-harming behaviors, and suicidal thoughts. Therefore, this study suggests that the sport community needs to reconsider what is “normal” and “acceptable” within sport, given the potential short- and long-term health implications of experiences of maltreatment. 

This study also looked at whether or not athletes disclosed and reported incidences of harm, finding that only 15% of athletes who experienced abuse, harassment, bullying or hazing told anyone about their experiences. Additionally, only 5% of athletes submitted a formal complaint about their experiences. One athlete expressed their concern about reporting by saying “I never felt like there was anyone I could speak to about [concerns about harmful behaviors] because [my sport] was my life and I didn’t want to jeopardize my career.” This was a common theme amongst the athletes, who believed that saying anything would negatively impact their careers because of the power the coaches and sport organizations had over their status on the team. Athletes viewed reporting as being associated with more negative consequences than just tolerating the maltreatment they were experiencing.

Five major themes emerged in the athletes’ qualitative responses to the question inviting them to pose recommendations for advancing safe sport:

1. A need for a confidential, independent third party that is responsible for accepting disclosures, reports and for providing support to victims;
2. An increase in education for all stakeholders (including coaches, staff, and athletes);
3. Increased accountability for those in positions of power;
4. A need to re-examine the culture of sport, which athletes described as being driven by a win-at-all-cost mentality, as well as a funding structure primarily based on performance outcomes. The suggestion was to shift to a person-first approach that prioritizes the holistic development of athletes, and;
5. A zero-tolerance policy for any sexual relations between athletes and those in positions of power (e.g. coaches, trainers, high-performance directors, etc.)

The recommendations stemming from this study indicate that to protect athletes from harm, more effective regulation is needed, more power needs to be given to athletes, and a cultural shift is needed to ensure the implementation of an athlete-centered approach to athlete well-being and performance.  

From an applied perspective, sport psychologists and mental performance practitioners may be in a unique position to safeguard athletes. They often form close relationships with athletes, which may be facilitative for athletes to disclose personal and sensitive information, including experiences of maltreatment. Sport psychologists and mental performance consultants may also be good candidates to be the safe and trustworthy person for athletes to go to with experiences of harm, helping athletes disclose and/or report their experiences, and providing supports and resources for victims of maltreatment. 

Additionally, the results of this study can help to increase practitioners’ awareness of the various forms of maltreatment that athletes are experiencing. While there has been an increase in attention to sexual harm in the public and sport domains, this study found that psychological harm and neglect were the most common forms of maltreatment experienced. Moreover, as all forms of harm are correlated with negative health outcomes, early signs of inappropriate conduct need to be addressed. Clearly, there is much more work to be done in research and in practice to truly protect athletes from harm, and those professionals in the field of sport psychology have important roles to play in making sport safe for athletes.  

Resources
Click here to read more about the maltreatment in sport study and the work of AthletesCAN.

References

Alexander, K, Stafford, A., & Lewis, R. (2011). The experiences of children participating in organized sport in the UK. The University of Edinburgh: Child Protection Research Centre. 

Coakley, J. (2004). Sports in society: Issues and controversies (8^th ed.). Boston, MA: McGrawHill.

Doherty, E. (1999). Winning isn’t everything… It’s the only thing: A critique of teenaged girls’ participation in sports. Marquette Sports Law Review, 10(1), 127-160. 

Stirling, A., & Kerr, G. (2013). The perceived effects of elite athletes’ experiences of emotional abuse in the coach-athlete relationship. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 11(1), 87-111.

Vertommen, T., Schipper-van Veldhocken, N., Wouters, K., Kampen, J. K., Brackenridge, C., Rhind, D., … Van Den Eede, F. (2016). Interpersonal violence against children in sport in the Netherlands and Belgium. Child Abuse & Neglect, 51, 223-236

World Health Organization. (2017). Child Maltreatment. Physically abused as children, (The Health Sector Responds), 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2013.42.3.