Methods

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Participants

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69 youth soccer players from Cook Inlet Soccer Club in Anchorage, Alaska.  The participants mean age was 13.1 years (SD=2.16). 30 of the participants were male and 38 were female (1 did not report their gender).  The majority of the participants (60.9%) attended middle school. The participants have played soccer for an average of 7.5 years (SD=3.1) and the majority (72.5%) play at least one other sport besides soccer.  Cook Inlet Soccer Club requires its youth soccer players sign a Code of Conduct forbidding hazing.

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Materials

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A 25 item questionnaire, Attitudes toward Sports Bullying and Hazing, was used.  The questionnaire is a modified version of the survey used by Mendez-Baldwin & Fontaine (2017) and Mendez-Baldwin & DeLaurentis (2018) in their studies examining attitudes toward bullying and sports hazing in high school and college students, respectively.  The content of the survey remained the same, however the language was modified for literacy level and age-appropriateness. The questionnaire included 5 point-Likert Scale items assessing athletes’ attitudes about sports, bullying. and hazing. Sample questions include: “sports hazing and bullying are different“,  “as long as no one gets hurt, a little harmless hazing is fine” and “I have been negatively affected by hazing”.  

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A socio-biographic questionnaire was also used to gather information on the participants age, gender, years playing soccer, and other sports played.  Due to the minor status of the participants, the socio-biographic questionnaire did not ask questions regarding ethnicity and socioeconomic status. 

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Procedure

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IRB approval from Manhattan College was obtained for this study. The director of the soccer club assisted with recruitment of participants.  Parental informed consent and child assent were obtained for all participants younger than 18 years. The participants completed the questionnaires either before or after practice.  It took about 20 minutes to complete the questionnaire. Debriefing forms were distributed after the questionnaires were completed. Participants and their parents were urged to contact their family physician or other health provider in case they were feeling any stress or emotional upset as a result of completing the questionnaire. Coaches were also advised to remain vigilant for any signs of emotional stress or upset among the Ps and to report such incidents to the child’s parent or guardian immediately.  

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Results

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Personal experiences 

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17.3% of the participants reported being hazed and 11.6% reported being negatively affected by hazing. 11.5% of the participants reported that they have participated in hazing.

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Views about sports bullying and hazing 

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Among the participants, 87% believed that hazing is a form of bullying and 78.2% believe that hazing can cause serious mental, physical, and emotional damage to an athlete. 60.9 % of the participants believe most athletes go along with hazing for fear of being isolated by their teammates. In addition, 18.8% believe that hazing is a part of sports culture.

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Impact on the team

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The results also show that 76.8% of the participants believe that hazing has a negative impact on a team but 23.1% believe that as long as no one gets hurt, a little hazing is okay.  Furthermore, 39.1% believe that new team members should undergo an initiation. 76.8 % do not believe that hazing improves team spirit and cohesiveness.

 

Views about intervention

 

The majority of the participants (68.1%) believe team captains should be responsible for making sure hazing and bullying do not occur.  In regards to coaches, 29.1% of the participants think that coaches ignore bullying. 79.7% would intervene if they witnessed a teammate being hazed and 37.6% believe athletes should be required to take an anti-bullying and anti-hazing program.  

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Correlations

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Correlations were performed to assess the relationship between the belief that hazing is a part of sports culture and various other attitudes and behaviors related to sports hazing and bullying. A significant correlation between the belief that hazing is a part of sports culture and the belief that fear of hazing motivates an athlete to work harder was obtained (r =.28;p<.05) indicating that those who believed that hazing is a part of the sports culture were more likely to believe that fear of hazing motivates an athlete. A significant correlation between the belief that hazing is a part of sports culture and the belief that hazing is a rite of passage was also obtained (r =.24;p<.05) indicating that those who believed that hazing is a part of sports culture were more likely to believe that hazing is a rite of passage. 

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Results also revealed a significant correlation (r=.25;p<.05) between believing that hazing is a part of the sports culture and believing that new team members should have to undergo an initiation. Lastly, there was a significant correlation between the belief that hazing is a part of sports culture and the belief that as long as no one gets hurt a little hazing is OK (r =.40;p<.01) indicating a strong positive relationship between these two attitudes. 

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A significant correlation between the belief that hazing is a part of the sports culture and participation in hazing (r=.39;p<.01) was obtained indicating that those who believed that sports hazing was a part of the sports culture were more likely to have participated in hazing. 

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Discussion

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The purpose of this study was to learn about youth soccer players’ attitudes about sports bullying and hazing.  The results demonstrate that the majority of the youth athletes believe that sports hazing is a form of bullying. In addition, they believe that sports hazing can have a negative impact on both individual athletes and the team. Furthermore, the majority of the young athletes would intervene to help a teammate if they were being hazed.   These are very healthy attitudes for young athletes to maintain.

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While these results suggest that the young athletes are well informed about the negative effects of bullying and hazing; other findings from this study seem to indicate that the young athletes also hold some unhealthy attitudes about sports hazing and bullying.  Specifically, over 30% of the participants believe that new members of a sports team should undergo an initiation and over 20% believe that as long as no one gets hurt a little hazing is okay. This in conjunction with the fact that over 60% believe that athletes go along with hazing for fear of being isolated by the team could lead to a situation where a young athlete who is faced with the pressure of being accepted by his/her teammates may engage in sports bullying/hazing.  During adolescence, the desire to fit in with a group or team is quite prevalent and typical. This strong desire to fit in may be strong enough to drive an athlete to engage in inappropriate behavior such as bullying or hazing. This tendency may be stronger among the newer members of the team, those with lower self-esteem, or those who have witnessed bullying in other domains.

 

The results also demonstrate a significant relationship between believing that hazing is a part of the sports culture and participation in hazing as well as believing that as long as no one gets hurt a little hazing is okay and that new team members should undergo an initiation. Coaches and parents should be aware of this and make efforts to communicate to young athletes that hazing should not be accepted as part of the sports culture. Another important point to consider in the prevention of bullying and hazing is implementing education and awareness measure earlier in life. Often times, young athletes are not given adequate information on the negative mental and physical impacts of bullying and hazing until they enter high school athletics. However, by this time it may be too late. By educating these young athletes on the negative effects earlier in -elementary or middle school, there may be a decrease of sports bullying and hazing as well as less acceptance of the belief that hazing is a natural part of the sports culture. 

 

Although this study only examined soccer players and the sample size was not very large, the findings represent a first step toward understanding sports hazing and bullying among young athletes.  This line of research requires more attention especially in light of the fact that sports have become very common in childhood. According to their website, Cook Inlet Soccer Club serves over 2,500 athletes per year in Alaska alone. This growing number alone shows the importance of future research in this topic.

 

References 

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Mendez-Baldwin, M.M. (2018) & DeLaurentis, B. (2018). College athletes’ views about sports bullying and hazing. Journal of Bullying and Social Aggression. Volume 1, No 1. 

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                 Volume 1, Number 1, 2019

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Mendez-Baldwin, M.M., Fontaine, A. & Consiglio,  J. (2017). An examination of high school 

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athletes’ attitudes about bullying and hazing.  Journal of  Bullying and Social Aggression. 

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Volume 2, No  2. (sites.tamuc.edu/bullyingjournal/article/high-school-athletes-attitudes-bullying-hazing/).

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Olweus , D. 1993). Bullying at school: what we know and what we can do. Oxford, UK; 

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Cambridge, USA :Blackwell. 

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