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Bullying and harassment prevention in youth basketball teams
Abstract
The work aims at identifying the extent of the incidence of bullying and harassment; furthermore, it will help understand the offensive nature of the action and identify prevention measures for helping victims in youth basketball teams. It suggests organisational and individual preventive measures to limit possible attack and can help the victims identify available assistance resources. In order to expand the scientific literature in this area, this study wishes to broaden the field of bullying and harassment research to include after-school teen-sports activities and potential professional athletes. Quantitative analysis method was selected using a developed questionnaire which distinguished bullying and harassment and evaluated prevention methods that were applied in practice. The developed questionnaire helped identify the following topics: bullying and harassment prevalence and characteristics in sports teams, formation of negative opinion and the nature of the sport tasks, physical well-being of team members and consequences. The paper provides empirical conclusions on how bullying and harassment affects youth basketball teams. It is argued that existing conflict management systems are not effectively exploited in the prevention of bullying and harassment. The article expands the literature on bullying and harassment at school age from 8'M to It∗ grade and provides novel opportunities for problem solving in assessing after-school activities. Research limitations - for this investigation, conclusions may lack depth. To address this issue, we proposed to conduct in-depth qualitative studies and evaluation of similar efforts in samples of different ethnic and cultural background. The originality of the study will produce novel results on bullying and harassment in junior relations, the situation in extra-curricular activities - basketball teams, where future potential / professional players are developed, revealing the dynamics of relationship between team members, the role of coaches. This represents the lack of utilisation of proven methods in prevention of bullying and harassment for both teams as well as others. This investigation will address the lack of scientific research and create a more meaningful connection between teen sports, bullying and harassment issues.
... In addition, McDonald et al. (2015) revealed that bullying may appear in various settings and among diverse age groups. Several studies have indicated that bullying perpetration or victimization incidences have been taking place daily or monthly in areas like sports (Evans et al., 2016;Vveinhardt et al., 2017. Such problematic issues and negative interactions between athletes (Newman et al., 2021;Vveinhardt et al., 2018; have been thoroughly emphasized during recent years. ...
... Recently, a number of sports-related scientific works which have independently explored women or men athletes has grown, at the expense of work considering both genders. For instance, several scholars explored only men sport participants (Nery et al., 2019;Vveinhardt et al., 2017), whereas others focused solely on a particular group of women competitors in their studies (Volk & Lagzdins, 2009;Jewett et al., 2019). Only few authors have aimed to investigate both genders (Evans et al., 2016;Vveinhardt & Fominiene, 2018;Vveinhardt & Fominiene, 2020). ...
... Balogh (2015) demonstrated that the trainer's negative attitudes and choices such as favoritism, incentive allocation of extra money during a match, and unequal player recognition could boost unfair circumstances within sports and, subsequently, could influence athletes in the most adverse directions. Additionally, based on the recent works, it can also be presumed that youth sports players will view the negative conduct of their coaches as an instance for potential bullying acts within the scope of the sports context (Vveinhardt et al., 2017). Nevertheless, this view was presented as a presumption and so a potential research analysis must be regarded. ...
This study explores the influence of individual and relational predictors on bullying perpetration/victimization among semi-professional team sport players in North Cyprus. Three variables reflect on an individual's level characteristics (e.g., gender, age, and nationality), and another one, representing the relational level factor (e.g., negative coaching behavior). The current paper obtained data from athletes through convenient sampling technique and online survey utilization. A total of 190 sports players with an average age of 24.77 (SD = 4.52) participated. All participants were club athletes from 16 diverse nations, competing in four different sports disciplines: football, volleyball, handball, and basketball. Hierarchical regression analysis was implemented to evaluate the above underlying linkages. It was found that age, nationality, and the coach's negative personal rapport significantly predicted bullying victimization dynamics among athletes. Bullying perpetration was only predicted by negative personal rapport with the coach but not by any of the individual level predictors. The moderation analysis showed that negative personal rapport with the coach significantly predicted the level of bullying victimization, the age and the nationality of the athlete moderated the relationship between the negative personal rapport and bullying victimization. In other words, the negative personal rapport had a higher effect on bullying victimization for the younger athletes and for international ones. Such findings have the potential to shape the base for further ongoing works, which could underline the critical demand for more emphasis and analysis of nationality, gender, age, and coach's negative rapport on bullying perpetration or victimization. The significance of the study's findings, its limits, and potential paths for further interpersonal violence research are addressed.
... Regarding the coping strategies that victims adopt in bullying situations, Nery et al. (2019) observed, with a sample of male athletes that, above all, they used strategies focused on emotions, communicating the situation to the family and/or the coach. Stirling et al. (2011) highlight that traditional sport culture does not encourage victims to break the law of silence as it is considered a sign of weakness, which causes continuity in bullying behaviors by the aggressor (Vveinhardt et al., 2017). On the other hand, bullying in sport has a negative emotional impact on the victims (Kentel and McHugh, 2015), who tend not to enjoy the sport, to have low self-esteem (Jewett et al., 2019), to feel isolated from the rest of the team (Evans et al., 2016), to have a low athletic as well as academic performance (Vveinhardt et al., 2017;Jewett et al., 2019) and to change sport clubs or abandon sport practice (Evans et al., 2016;Nery et al., 2020). ...
... Stirling et al. (2011) highlight that traditional sport culture does not encourage victims to break the law of silence as it is considered a sign of weakness, which causes continuity in bullying behaviors by the aggressor (Vveinhardt et al., 2017). On the other hand, bullying in sport has a negative emotional impact on the victims (Kentel and McHugh, 2015), who tend not to enjoy the sport, to have low self-esteem (Jewett et al., 2019), to feel isolated from the rest of the team (Evans et al., 2016), to have a low athletic as well as academic performance (Vveinhardt et al., 2017;Jewett et al., 2019) and to change sport clubs or abandon sport practice (Evans et al., 2016;Nery et al., 2020). ...
... A lack of teacher-student relationship can lead victims to stop reporting the event due to a perception of indifference from the teacher, or due to the feeling that they will not solve the problem positively (Nery et al., 2020). Therefore, the actions taken by the coaches did not favor, in general, putting an end to bullying, probably due to a lack of education and knowledge about this phenomenon (Kowalski, 2017;Flores et al., 2020) and due to their education being focused on athletic performance, with traditional training styles (Vveinhardt and Fominiene, 2020), creating a high pressure environment for the victim (Vveinhardt et al., 2017). Thus, it is advisable to increase the knowledge on the subject by the coaches and articulate pedagogic dynamics that are in line with the athletes' youth sport training (Collot and Dudink, 2010;Baar and Wubbels, 2013;Shannon, 2013;Nery et al., 2019;Flores et al., 2020). ...
Bullying is a global issue that, beyond school, is present in different social contexts, such as sport environments. The main objective of this study was to get to know the experiences of victims of bullying in sport throughout their youth sport training. Semi-structured interviews to four Spanish women and seven Spanish men were carried out, within an age range of 17-27 (M age = 21 years, SD = 3.69). The following main themes were established by means of a hierarchical content analysis: (a) "bullying characterization," (b) "dealing with bullying," and (c) "consequences of bullying." The results show the presence of physical, verbal and social bullying in the sport context, with the changing room being the space where this type of behavior is most frequently developed. Most victims show an internal attribution (self-blame) for the bullying event, related to their motor skills and their personal physical and psychological characteristics. Double victimization can be observed, at the sport club and at the educational center. Passive strategies are used to deal with the situation, while little support is shown by sport agents (teammates and coaches). The victims, as a consequence of the bullying experience, suffer from short and long-term negative effects on a psychosocial level. The study highlights the necessity to design and implement programs focused on the prevention, detection and intervention of bullying for sport organizations, bearing in mind all the agents that make them up (coaches, management teams, families, and players). Furthermore, the importance of promoting the creation of safe sport environments, free from any kind of violence, is emphasized.
... Negative interpersonal interactions among athletes, expressed as bullying and harassment, were singled out as an important social issue along with other important issues such as athlete trauma, doping use, hopelessness, and deception [5,38]. Despite the attitude of the public and sports professionals that bullying in sports should be prohibited [39], over the past ten years, scholars from many countries have examined this sporting phenomenon increasingly studied and analyzed [39,40,41,42,43,44,45]. However, evaluating this phenomenon and comparing the obtained data with other data presents many diffi culties. ...
Background and Study Aim. This study aims to chart the trend of publications in the Scopus database and the Web of Science as well as the global evolution of harassment and bullying in sports. Material and Methods. ScientoPy and VOSviewer software were used in this study to analyze the number of publications, well-known research topics, proactive authors, author keywords, preferred sources, and institutional data. This study uses data reconciliation with 1, 883 different items from the Scopus database and the Web of Science. An increasing trend in sports nutrition research was found using the Scopus and WoS databases. Results. This field has grown significantly since 2015. In addition, the percentage of documents published in the last two years (2020 to 2021) shows that 22.40% were published on WoS and 22.04% on Scopus. The five keywords that are trending topics between 2020 and 2021 are "Sports", "Racism", "Race", "Sexual Harassment", and "Gender". Meanwhile, the keywords with the highest total link strength were "sports" (244), "racism" (169), "bullying" (165), "adolescents" (161), and "physical activity" (150). The University of Toronto, Canada, became the most productive institution with 22 publications. Conclusions. The most prestigious institutes and researchers in the field of harassment and bullying research in sports have been recognized, along with key research areas, keywords, and related papers. The study also offers potential readers and researchers a global perspective on the hottest issues in harassment and bullying in sport today. In addition, it provides various analyses to assist in the organization of data for the development of harassment and bullying research theories and methodologies in strong sports.
... Este puede actuar condicionando el comportamiento de los jugadores y las jugadoras, así como su desarrollo moral, convirtiéndose en un referente o modelo de conducta de estos/as (Nery et al., 2020). En este sentido, Vveinhardt et al., (2017) observaron que en una muestra de jugadores/as de baloncesto víctimas de bullying, estos/as comunicaban su situación a los entrenadores y las entrenadoras antes que a su propia familia. Sin embargo, a su vez, es posible que el entrenador o la entrenadora pueda normalizar determinadas conductas negativas, tales como los comportamientos relacionados con el bullying, por considerarlos inherentes a la cultura deportiva (Kowalski, 2017). ...
CAT: Els entrenadors i les entrenadores són agents de gran rellevància per a l’abordatge del bullying que pot desenvolupar-se en el context de pràctica esportiva formativa. L’estudi tenia com a objectiu valorar el coneixement del bullying en una mostra d’entrenadors/es de Catalunya (Espanya), així com les estratègies de prevenció de les quals disposaven. Els i les participants van ser 161 entrenadors/es (75.8 % homes i 24.2 % dones) de diferents modalitats esportives, amb una mitjana d’edat de 20.3 anys (SD = 3.15). Se’ls va administrar un qüestionari ad hoc amb les preguntes obertes: “Com definiries el bullying?”, “Quines tipologies de bullying existeixen?” i “Quines estratègies utilitzes per prevenir el bullying a l’esport?”. Es va realitzar una anàlisi de contingut mitjançant un procés deductiu de la definició de bullying i de les seves tipologies, i un procés inductiu per a les estratègies de prevenció. A la vegada, es van calcular les freqüències (%) de les respostes en cadascuna de les categories de les diferents dimensions. S’observà poca concreció en la definició del fenomen atenent als conceptes clau (repetició, intencionalitat de fer mal i desequilibri de poder). La tipologia que es va indicar amb més freqüència va ser el bullying físic, seguit del ciberbullying. S’esmentaren estratègies de prevenció relacionades amb el foment d’un clima positiu entre els/les esportistes i, en menor mesura, les relacionades amb l’observació, la sensibilització, la normativa, la comunicació, l’educació emocional i la intervenció davant conflictes. En general, es detectà poc coneixement entre els entrenadors/es sobre el bullying; considerant-se rellevant que aquests disposin de més formació específica respecte al fenomen.
ESP: Los entrenadores y las entrenadoras son figuras de gran importancia para el abordaje del bullying que puede aparecer en el contexto de la práctica deportiva formativa. El objetivo del estudio era evaluar los conocimientos sobre bullying en una muestra de entrenadores/as de Cataluña (España), así como las estrategias de prevención de las que disponían. Los participantes y las participantes fueron 161 entrenadores/as (75.8 % hombres y 24.2 % mujeres) de diferentes modalidades deportivas, con una media de edad de 20.3 años (SD = 3.15). Se les proporcionó un cuestionario ad hoc con las siguientes preguntas abiertas: «¿Cómo definirías el bullying?», «¿Qué tipologías de bullying existen?» y “¿Qué estrategias utilizas para prevenir el bullying en el deporte?”. Se realizó un análisis de contenido mediante, por un lado, un proceso deductivo de la definición de bullying y sus tipologías; y, por otro, un proceso inductivo para las estrategias de prevención. A su vez, se calcularon las frecuencias (%) de las respuestas en cada una de las categorías de las diferentes dimensiones. Se observó que la definición del fenómeno era poco concreta en cuanto a conceptos clave (repetición, intención de hacer daño y desequilibrio de poder). La tipología que se mostró con mayor frecuencia fue el bullying físico, seguido del ciberbullying. Se mencionaron estrategias de prevención relacionadas con el fomento de un clima positivo entre los deportistas y las deportistas, y, en menor medida, las relacionadas con la observación, la sensibilización, la normativa, la comunicación, la educación emocional y la intervención frente a conflictos. En general, se detectó que los entrenadores y las entrenadoras tenían poco conocimiento sobre el bullying, por lo cual se consideró relevante que estos/as dispongan de una mayor formación específica sobre el fenómeno.
ENG: Coaches are key figures in tackling bullying that can occur in the context of formative sport practice. The aim of the study was to evaluate knowledge about bullying among a sample of coaches in Catalonia (Spain), as well as the prevention strategies available to them. The participants were 161 coaches (75.8% male and 24.2% female) from different sports, with a mean age of 20.3 years (SD = 3.15). They were provided with an ad hoc questionnaire with the following open questions: “How would you define bullying?”, “What typologies of bullying exist?” and “What strategies do you use to prevent bullying in sport?”. A content analysis was carried out through, on the one hand, a deductive process for the definition of bullying and its typologies; and, on the other hand, an inductive process for prevention strategies. In turn, the frequencies (%) of responses in each of the categories of the different areas were calculated. It was observed that the definition of the phenomenon was vague in terms of key concepts (repetition, intent to harm and power imbalance). The most frequently displayed typology was physical bullying, followed by cyberbullying. Prevention strategies related to promoting a positive climate among athletes were mentioned, and to a lesser extent those related to observation, awareness-raising, regulation, communication, emotional education and conflict intervention. In general, it was found that coaches had little knowledge about bullying, so it was considered relevant that they be given more specific training on the phenomenon.
... This, combined with the effects of peer pressure, can impose a code of silence ("what happens in the locker room stays in the locker room"), meaning coaches may often be unaware that bullying is taking place (Prat et al., 2020;Vveinhardt et al., 2019a). Victims of bullying generally try to cope on their own and rarely turn to others (e.g., teammates, family members, or coaches) for help (Collot & Dudink, 2010;Nery et al., 2019;Vveinhardt et al., 2017); the main emotions reported were anger and sadness. Studies are needed on the short -and long-term psychological effects of being bullied and possible mood disorders such as depression and anxiety in later years (Moore et al., 2017). ...
Bullying is a social problem that has been studied most in schools but affects other social contexts. However, there is a general lack of studies on bullying in sports. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of bullying among youth soccer players. Participants were 1,980 soccer players (88.2% boys) aged 8 to 13 years (Mage = 10.5, SD = 1.68) from 25 clubs in Catalonia, Spain. An ad hoc questionnaire was administered to analyze the prevalence and characteristics of bullying from the perspective of victims, bullies, and bystanders. The overall bullying victimization rate was 8.9%, with higher rates observed in the younger categories (p < .001); 5.2% of victims experienced bullying in both their soccer club and at school. The bullying and bystander rates were 14.8% and 34.7%, respectively, with significant differences between boys and girls (15.5% of boys and 9% of girls were bullies [p < .05], while 36.4% of boys and 21.9% of girls were bystanders [p < .001]). Verbal bullying was the main type of bullying reported. The locker room and pitch were the most common locations, and victims were more likely to deal with bullying on their own than to ask for help. Bullying is present in grassroots soccer, and anti-bullying programs are needed to instill ethical and moral values in athletes and equip coaches with the necessary skills to prevent, detect, and address bullying situations.
... They tend to cause school failure and difficulties, high levels of anxiety, dissatisfaction, phobia of going to school, insecurity, negative self-concept, insomnia, eating disorders, depression, aggressive behaviors, and even suicidal attempts (Donoghue et al., 2014;Reuland and Mikami, 2014;Kub and Feldman, 2015;Modin et al., 2015;Duque and Teixido, 2016;Juvonen et al., 2016;Lucia, 2016;Pecjak and Pirc, 2017;Thornberg et al., 2017;Vveinhardt et al., 2017;Juan et al., 2018;Williford and Zinn, 2018;Yang et al., 2018;Garmendia Larranaga et al., 2019;Moyano et al., 2019;Velki, 2019;Li et al., 2020;Nunez-Fadda et al., 2020). ...
Teaching socio-emotional skills among primary school students is the key to creating a climate of cooperation in classrooms and reducing disruptive or aggressive behaviors among students. The primary goal of this research is to present an educational proposal for imparting socio-emotional competencies among primary school students. We attempt to impart socio-emotional competencies based on: (1) fostering self-knowledge, self-esteem, and respect for others among students; (2) developing behaviors that allow them to perceive and express feelings and self-regulating emotions; and (3) developing assertive communication skills aimed at improving conflict resolution. This program has been designed in such a way that it is implemented throughout the academic year by organizing bi-monthly sessions of 45 min each, held until the completion of 15 sessions. The sample consists of 100 students in the third grade, with the control and experimental groups having an equal number of students (50 each). The instruments used for this research are: (a) BarOn Emotional Quotient Inventory (Youth Version [BarOn EQ-i:YV]): used for measuring emotional and social functioning; (b) the Matson Evaluation of Social Skills with Youngsters (MESSY): used for assessing social skills; and (c) Questionnaire for the Assessment of School Violence in Preschool and Primary School Questionnaire. To check the effectiveness of the educational intervention, a quasi-experimental design, along with pretest-posttest control group design, is used in accordance with the general linear model. Its effectiveness is also checked using repeated measures analysis of variance. The results show that the program is useful in preventing violent behaviors in the educational field and promoting the development of socio-emotional skills among third grade students. Finally, the applicability of the program to other educational contexts is discussed to enhance students' personal development and decrease the levels of violence found in primary school.
Özen, G. Sporda Bireyler Arası Şiddet, Hacettepe Üniversitesi Sağlık Bilimleri Enstitüsü Spor Bilimleri Ana Bilim Dalı Doktora Tezi, Ankara, 2023. Bu çalışmada spor alanının aktörleri arasındaki ilişkilerde şiddet fenomeninin nasıl yaşandığı ve sonrasında yaşama yansıyabilen şiddet eğilimleri ile alanda yarattıkları kültür incelenmiştir.
Sporcuların kendilerinden yaşça büyük ve statü olarak üstün olan kişilerce sıklıkla fiziksel şiddete maruz bırakıldıkları, çeşitli biçimlerle psikolojik, ekonomik, cinsel şiddet deneyimlerine sahip oldukları görülmüştür. Sporcular arasında ise hiyerarşi ve hegemonya yaratma arzusuna dayalı güç gösterilerinden beslenen akran zorbalığının örneklerine rastlanmaktadır. Araştırmanın nicel bulguları şiddete maruz kalan sporcuların şiddet eğiliminin yüksek olduğunu göstermektedir. Araştırmanın nicel ve nitel bulguları şiddete maruz kalan sporcuların bu durumu şikâyet etmekten kaçındıklarını, bir şey yapılacağına inanmadıklarını, şikâyet prosedürlerini bilmediklerini, şiddet sonrası üzüntü, depresyon, korku, motivasyon bozukluğu, spor yaşamını kaybetmek konusunda güçlü endişeler yaşadıklarını göstermektedir. Ayrıca bulgular; sporcuların branşlarına özgü yanlış antrenman periyotlanması, müsabaka, kamp programları konusunda bilgi sahibi olmamak, yöneticilerce yapılan keyfi uygulamalarla sakatlık, performans kaybı, psikolojik rahatsızlıklar, kilo problemleri, uluslararası müsabakalara katılamamak, kariyer planlaması yapamamak gibi önemli problemler yaşadıklarını göstermektedir. Herhangi bir şiddet türüne maruz kalan sporcular, kulüp ya da antrenör değişikliği veya sporu bırakmak zorunda kaldıklarını ifade etmektedirler. Antrenörlerin, spor yöneticilerinin eğitimlerinin geliştirilmesi, sporcuları koruyan politikaların ve uygulamaların artırılmasının alanda şiddet davranışlarının azalmasında rol oynayabileceği düşünülmektedir.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Şiddet, Şiddet Türleri, Cinsel Taciz, Akran Zorbalığı,
Bireylerarası Şiddet Davranışları.
The growing concern about the impact of bullying on athletes’ emotional state and health as well as the decision to end their sports careers early stimulate both interest in the forms of bullying and investigation of the very process of bullying in sport. Attention is drawn to the power inequality that shows up in the interactions between the bully and the victim, which is to be treated as one of the most important factors characterizing bullying, pushing one of the parties participating in the conflict into the position of the loser. Systematic and long-lasting bullying leads to the situation in which the victim is forced to feel unable to defend himself/herself, while the imbalance of power between the parties to the conflict can be identified as an essential criterion that helps to distinguish bullying from aggressive behaviour.
Research conducted in various contexts of social relationships demonstrates that the pressure exerted by a group of colleagues distinguishes itself by certain informal agreement, seeking to exclude the victim from the social or professional environment, which is referred to as social ostracism, for that purpose using various tactics of causing pain to the target person. Bullying manifests itself in various professional activity areas; thus, sport is no exception. However, there is not much research analysing the power imbalance in professional sports activities or the phenomenon is addressed indirectly. It is therefore not fully clear what actions of bullying upset the balance of power to the detriment of the victim and what role different participants of bullying play. Greater clarity of the features highlighting the power imbalance is needed for several reasons. First, without knowing which actions in sport undermine the victim’s resistance most, it is more difficult to organize prevention of bullying in professional sport. Second, this would enable to foresee the trends for improving athletes’ social and emotional competence in order to prevent the escalation of the conflict in its initial stage and to propose measures allowing to restore the balance of power. Therefore, the research problem is raised by a problem question: What features of bullying as the power imbalance show up in sport?
The research object: bullying in sport as the power imbalance.
The purpose of the research: to identify the features of bullying in sport as the power imbalance.
Research methods. In order to distinguish the features of bullying in sport as the power imbalance, a theoretical study, using the structural analysis and synthesis methods, was performed. The empirical study was conducted using a questionnaire survey method.
A survey of 370 Lithuanian athletes revealed that 111 persons had experienced bullying, of which 28,8 per cent had felt unable to resist and 9,9 per cent had intended to leave the current team. Most of the athletes who planned to leave the team emphasised the pressure from team members and coaches. The results of this study allow us to draw several conclusions. First, judging from the reactions of the victims of bullying, the power of the participants of bullying varies depending on whether bullying takes place in a vertical or horizontal direction. In this case, the vertical power expressed by the coach’s possessed status with regard to athletes limits athletes’ resistance actions; therefore, abuse of power can be treated as posing a particular risk. Another important risk factor shows up at the horizontal level as the pressure exerted by the group. Second, unlike in cases of bullying among children, there are no significant differences between direct and indirect bullying actions. The fact that all groups of investigated persons (those feeling unable to resist, those who have resisted, and those intending to leave the team) responded to all six groups of bullying actions similarly suggests that in bullying prevention, it would be inappropriate to single out some groups of actions as requiring greater or lesser attention.
The results of our study can be useful for further discussion in looking for answers as to how the power of bullying manifests itself in different directions, what its features are. They also enable more targeted planning of bullying prevention practices in sport.
This article presents only a part of the results of the study conducted by the authors.
Bullying is a social phenomenon defined as repeated negative actions that involve a differential of power whereby the individual who is more powerful attacks or harasses the individual who is less powerful with an intention to harm or disturb (Olweus, 1993). The social, emotional, and physical consequences for youth who are bullied are significant. Research on bullying, bullying prevention, and bullying intervention has focused mainly on the school settings and the role of school administrators and teachers (Monks et al., 2009). Bullying occurs in out-of-school settings including recreation and sport settings, but limited research exists. The purpose of the study was to explore (a) factors that are perceived as contributing to bullying behavior in youth-serving recreation and sport environments and (b) what administrators and staff do to prevent bullying and to respond when it occurs. Semi-structured, face-to-face interviews were used to collect data in 31 youth-serving sport and recreation organizations from 31 administrators and 40 leaders, coaches, or supervisors representing 10 municipal recreation departments, 16 nonprofit organizations, and five commercial organizations in New Brunswick, Canada. The findings suggest organizational culture, program elements, bullying behaviors that begin in other settings, and peer group dynamics define perceptions of bullying as well as prevention and intervention efforts. Administrators trained staff to prevent and respond to bullying, developed procedures that communicated expectations related to behavior, and clearly expressed their values related to safe environments for program participants in an effort to create a climate that would not support bullying. Competitive environments, limited supervision, and unstructured time were program elements perceived as increasing the likelihood of bullying behaviors. Administrators and leaders worked at altering program elements to reduce opportunities for bullying behavior to develop or thrive. It was discovered that not all peer relationship problems begin within the recreation and sport context, but rather can spill over from school, neighborhood, or home settings. Finally, there was understanding that positive group norms need to be created and the ways in which groups are structured can influence a climate that can either promote supportive relationships or fuel bullying behaviors.
Vilija Bite Fominiene, Sergej Vojtovic
Today, only modern organizations can compete in the national, European and global market, as they develop knowledge, or use of scientific and technical progress in modernizing jobs, basically increasing productivity, reducing production costs, the staff is regularly taught new ways of working, developing co-operation in the national and the international market, they are able to adapt to the constantly changing environment. Aim of article was to identify the main factors affecting the competitiveness of services of sports clubs. The paper identifies major internal and external factors influencing the competitiveness of the services provided by sports clubs. Internal factors were factor and demand conditions, related and servicing industries (clusters), the company structure, strategy and competition, manager/strategy developer, corporate image and service quality. External factors were the role of the government, opportunities and international business, social and economic factors. The main reasons for the importance of internal factors affecting the competitiveness of sports club services are the clients' personal interests and meeting their social needs, and the importance of the external factors is determined by the state and the values established in the society. The practical model of factors affecting the competitiveness of the services provided by sports clubs was developed in the order of their priority. The model of factors affecting the competitiveness of the services provided by sports clubs reflects the internal and external competitive environment of sports clubs services.
KEYWORDS: sport clubs, services, competition.
Every organization can be viewed as a set of processes and activities that are structured to satisfy customers’ needs and expectations. The pressure of global competition, technology progress, increasing product and service complexity, and strong customer orientation force organizations to improve processes and their capability to create and deliver value. The fundamental goal of health care sector is added value for patients. The paper aims to develop a conceptual framework for healthcare processes improvement from the viewpoint of value creation. Based on systematic and comparative analysis of scientific literature, authors of the paper present the theoretical model ofprocesses improvement for value creation from patient and organization perspectives. Value for patient is reflected in better access to services, time and cost reduction, quality improvement, convenience, and satisfaction. From organization perspective this leads to quality improvement, waste elimination and, finally, to a competitive advantage. Empirical research was conducted at outpatient clinic reception. 360 degree empirical research was applied during it including all parts interested, namely outpatient clinic’s administration representatives, employees and patients. There were identified problematic areas of outpatient clinic’s reception work processes and suggestions for processes improvement presented. © 2017, Kauno Technologijos Universitetas. All rights reserved.
Previous research has indicated that some sport spectators display high levels of fan dysfunction. That is, they tend to complain often and be confrontational in sport settings. In the current study, the relationship between childhood bullying behaviors and adult fan dysfunction was investigated. It was hypothesized that having been a bully as a child would predict level of fan dysfunction as an adult. A sample of 197 college students completed measures assessing bullying (both as a bully and as a victim) and fan dysfunction. Regression analyses revealed the hypothesized pattern of effects.
The purpose of this study is to determine the level of psychological mobbing behaviors that the football referees within Turkey Football Federation are exposed to. The sampling of the study conducted by using a screening model is consisted of 374 referees, actively working in various leagues. The research data were collected by a Mobbing Scale for Football Referees. In the study were used descriptive statistics, Tukey test, t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). As a result of the survey, it was found out that women compared to men, married referees to single referees, the referees with postgraduate education compared to the other educational groups, the referees of 23-27 age group compared to the other age groups, the referees of 1 to 4 tenure compared to other tenure groups, were more exposed to mobbing behaviors. It was determined that there was a statistically significant difference between the mobbing behaviors according to the variable of gender, marital status, education, ages of the referees, and that there was no any significant difference according to the tenure variable. In addition, it was concluded that the participated referees were exposed to various mobbing behaviors at lower medium levels in total.
The purpose of this article was to create the Typology of Coaching Transgressions model (TOCT), which is concerned with abuse, neglect and violence in youth sport. Comments provided by the Justplay Behaviour Management Program from two competitive hockey associations and one large soccer association were analyzed and sorted to assess the utility of the model to capture inappropriate coaching behaviours. A total of 540 comments were examined deductively using the TOCT. Approximately 80% of coaching transgressions were of an indirect nature (i.e., not directed at the athlete specifically), indicating that young athletes are exposed to forms of abuse, neglect, and violence that may create harm in ways not yet fully understood. These findings illuminate the importance of understanding the nature and impact of coaching conduct on youth sport participants.
Over the past 15 years, there has been a growing concern regarding child protection (CP) in the sport context yet there remains a lack of research into how key stakeholders view related CP policies. The present exploratory case study of a UK ballet organisation focuses on the following research questions: (1) What are the key elements of good practice for CP in ballet? and (2) Which discourses are adopted by ballet stakeholders when discussing CP-related experiences? Semi-structured interviews and self-report semi-structured questionnaires were conducted with 13 stakeholders drawn from ballet teachers, students and administrators. Inductive analysis revealed five welfare discourses: positive, neutral, negative, contradictory and rationalising. A tendency to normalise negative experiences in ballet was also identified. The CP-related policy knowledge of teachers and administrators was generally satisfactory with some gaps being highlighted. Recommendations for implementation of CP policy in ballet are outlined. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
‘Semi-structured interviews and self-report semi-structured questionnaires were conducted with 13 stakeholders’