You're made to feel like you're the crazy one

An Interpretive Description of Former College Student-Athletes' Views of Emotional Abuse

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4650920
AutoresKat V Adams (0009-0005-5118-262X, Utah State University), Katherine N Alexander (0000-0001-6067-6086, Utah State University), Travis E Dorsch (0009-0006-6248-2270, Utah State University)
Año2024
Volumen6
Páginas1428682-1428682
Fecha de publicación2024-10-28
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaFrontiers in Sports and Active Living (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 2624-9367 • E-ISSN: 2624-9367
EditorialFrontiers Media SA (PUBLISHER • CH)
DOI10.3389/fspor.2024.1428682
PMID39529661
OpenAlexW4403806631
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas1
Referencias citadas39

Many normalized coaching behaviors are often abusive yet are seen by coaches and athletes as instrumental in achievement and competition. The current study was designed to extend past research and theory by subjectively exploring how and why former intercollegiate athletes identified their head coach as emotionally abusive. Twenty former intercollegiate student-athletes (Mage = 26.0 years) from nine sports participated in semi-structured interviews ranging from 65 to 189 min (M = 105.8, SD = 58). Interpretive description methodology was used with reflexive thematic analysis to generate a coherent conceptual description of the themes and shared experiences that characterized emotionally abusive coaching. The themes that associated with an athlete labeling a coach as emotionally abusive fall under two aspects of Stirling and Kerr's 2008 definition: non-contact coach behaviors and the resulting harmful outcomes experienced by the athletes. Non-contact behaviors were ones that diminished performance, neglected holistic development, and were inconsistent. The harmful effects were the negative emotional responses and dehumanization experienced by athletes. Finally, participants felt that a coach's desire for power and control over athletes explained the coach's behaviors generally. Based on these results, we put forth the conceptual claim that emotional abuse, and psychological violence more broadly, cannot be defined or identified based solely on the perpetrator's behaviors. The athlete's cognitions, perceptions, emotions, and behaviors are critical in determining whether emotional abuse occurred, and these interpretations are shaped by an athlete's existing relationship with the coach

Abusive supervision · Athletes · Coaching · Developmental psychology · Perception · Psychotherapist · Qualitative research · Thematic analysis · Applied Psychology · Motivation and Self-Concept in Sports · Psychology · Social Psychology · Sport Psychology and Performance · Sports, Gender, and Society