When Matthew* experienced violence from his soccer coach and teammates, he didn’t tell his parents out of fear it would mean giving up the sport he loved.
“I didn’t want them to withdraw me from sport altogether, because sport has always been everything in my life, it truly has.”
So, in silence, he continued to put up with having equipment and objects thrown at him, being forced to train against medical advice, and psychological neglect from the coach.
Less than half of Australian children who experience any type of violence in sport disclose the experience to an adult, a world-first study has shown.
Research led by Victoria University, Telling adults about it, which was published on Monday in the journal Sport in Society, found that of children who had experienced interpersonal violence from their coach, peers or parent in Australian community sport, only 46% told an adult about it.
Dr Mary Woessner, the co-lead author of the study, said interpersonal violence refers to psychological, physical, sexual, or neglectful violence, bullying and harassment that happens in and around the sporting environment. “There is some violence in contact sport sanctioned by the rules. We’re talking about unsanctioned violence.”
The research was based on the responses of 886 Australians from all states and territories, 18% of whom were aged 18 to 25 years, 63% women, 35% men and 2% gender diverse individuals, who were surveyed using the Violence Towards Athletes Questionnaire.
In a study released last year based on the same survey results, the researchers revealed the high rates of interpersonal violence among 82% of children playing community sport in Australia.
To understand how often children told adults about these experiences, the researchers added a question after each of the survey’s sections divided based on perpetrator (peer, coach, and two on parents)that asked participants if they had disclosed that experience to anyone over the age of 18.
Those who had experienced peer violence were the most likely to tell an adult about it (35%), followed by coach (27%) and those who had experienced it from a parent were least likely (13%). One example of interpersonal violence experienced from a parent included children who were completely ignored on the drive home after a poor sporting performance, Woessner said.
The study also included a second component interviewing six participants, including Matthew, to explore how children’s disclosures of these incidents occur.
The researchers found there were two processes children went through. The first was an internal one as children decided whether to make the disclosure. “They’re weighing up is this bad enough? How is everyone else responding to this? Is this normal?” Woessner said.
“They don’t want to speak up because they’re worried what will happen to their sport, their sport family. They’re also worried what will happen to the person that they report.”
The study found when an adult – either a parent or the coach – were the perpetrator of the violence, participants found it more challenging to address dissatisfaction, often because they were authority figures in the child’s life who they viewed with a lot of respect.
The second part was the external process of the child telling the adult. “The majority of participants shared that their disclosures to parents or a coach were often dismissed, disbelieved or diminished with the adult pushing the child to take responsibility for themselves and be ‘resilient’,” the study found.
Dr Aurélie Pankowiak, the other co-lead, said the normalisation of violence in sports emerged as a theme of the study, discouraging children from speaking up and making it more likely adults would dismiss the disclosure.
For example, the idea “tough love” coaching – often believed in sport to be important for building character, resilience and discipline – can lead to the excessive criticism, which can seriously impact the mental health of children in the long term, Pankowiak said.
The study found that the adult that children were most likely to disclose their experience to was their parent, or their other parent in the case of parental violence.
When it was peer-perpetrated violence, the study found boys had significantly lower rates of disclosure (28%) compared with girls (38%).
Dr. Kirsty Forsdike, a specialist in gender-based violence in sport from La Trobe University who was not involved in the study, said: “We can’t underestimate the significance of this study … we know the violence is happening, so how is it then responded to?”
“The idea that children potentially aren’t disclosing at all is quite a troubling thing because you think well, how much is going on and continuing to go on because no one knows and is actually able to then put a stop to it?” Forsdike said.
“This sort of behaviour in a sports context, and sports culture is so normalised, that either the child themselves don’t necessarily think it’s something that they can speak up about, or they’re worried about speaking out what that might do.”
While the study was not a representative sample, Forsdike said it was still a strong study “in and of itself,” and a representative study would require sufficient investment from a big organisation such as the government.
*Name has been changed
• In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800; adult survivors can seek help at Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380.
