Abuse and Harassment in Sports Essay

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Abuses of Power Relative to Elite Athletes

It is often the case that elite athletes are subjected to rigors and standards that are far beyond what is expected of the majority of the general public. There are many issues that are common among elite athletes that are known to affect either their bodies or their minds. For instance, some athletes are subjected to such high levels of discipline from either coaches or parents that the experience can be considered emotional harassment or even abuse. Coaches and parents can also use and abuse an elite athletes' bodies in many different ways. There is often a fine line between an eating disorder and attempts to maintain a body in a state of being able to achieve peak performance. Females athletes often attempt to suppress weight gain while it is more common for males to attempt to gain weight by increasing muscle weight and density. Similarly, narrow thresholds exist between training and overtraining elite athletes. However, even more extreme examples of abuse can be found in this population such as the case with sexual harassment or abuse. This study will conduct a literature review that focuses on the various forms of abuses of power that can be common among elite athletes.

Literature Review

Weight-control behavior is commonly observed in a wide range of elite sports, especially leanness sports, where control over body weight is crucial for high peak performance; nonetheless, there is only a fine line between purely functional behavior and clinically relevant eating disorders (Werner, 2013). It has been estimated that female elite athletes represent an at-risk population relative to developing eating disorders during elite sports training periods, during times of competition, and later in life. One meta-analysis on weight-control behaviors found inconsistent results that vary along the lines of factors such as age, gender, and the type of sport that is played.

There are many sports that are considered "leanness sports" in which the athletes are expected to keep their bodies trim to be able to perform the best it can. For example, it is expected that long distance runners or sprinters have extremely low levels of body fat while the same requirements do not apply to sports that are not depended upon leanness such as shot-putting, golf, or baseball. It can be difficult to detect eating disorders (EDs) in elite athletes because many people may perceive their eating behaviors as being consistent with the requirements that the sport demands or overlook weight gains or losses for similar reasons. Furthermore, elite athletes may also fail to report any ED behaviors for fear of reprisal such as not being allowed to compete or make the team (Torstveit, Rosenvinge, & Sundgot-Borgen, 2007).

Much of the research that has been conducted has focused on elite female athletes at the college level. One such study has indicated the difference between lean-sport related EDs and every other category of athletes and non-athletes. Lean-sport athletes had a higher score on body dissatisfaction, and lower actual and desired body weight than non -- lean-sport athletes and within the athlete sample, the high-risk group included 2.9% of the non -- lean-sport athletes and 25% of the lean-sport athletes (Reinking & Alexander, 2005). Given the risk factors that are evident within such groups, it is also argued that athletic trainers have the capacity and responsibility to play active roles as integral members of the health care team and facilitate early detection and treatment of eating disorders (Bonci, et al., 2008).

While coaches and trainers can undoubtedly be part of the solution, it is reasonable to suspect that they are more commonly part of the problem. In regards to some sports, coaches, trainers, and parents may unconsciously project expectations about body image to elite athletes, while in other sports, this practice is simply overt. For example, coaches may facilitate a highly competitive culture in which athletes believe that they have to use every tactic available to them to improve their bodies and/or performances. Athletes in these environments are more likely to develop unhealthy body images that lead to ED or the use of performance enhancing substances. However, in some sports that actually have classifications for different weights of athletes, such as in boxing and wrestling for example, coaches may even mandate extreme forms of weight management to ensure compliance with the intended classification. Furthermore, in all competitive sports, coaches may pressure their athletes to use unhealthy behaviors to gain any performance edge that is possible.

Although there is a common perception that sports are generally a positive influence on the development of individuals at all ages, there have been increasing concerns about elite athletics and the physical and psychological harms that can result in the pursuit of performance level, especially in children.

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Anytime there is a large distance in the gap in power held between individuals, there exists the temptation for individuals to abuse their power. Examples of this can be found throughout society and common examples include the employer/employee relationship, coach/athlete relationship, and child/parent relationship. Out of these associations there is also the potential for emotional damage to be inflicted. Emotional damage can be caused by verbal hostility, denigration, unrealistic expectations, induced fear and anxiety by threats among others (Stirling, 2011). Given the competitive nature of sports, especially with elite sports, it has been argued that it is more likely to find such abusive behaviors.

One study attempted to investigate abusive behaviors in a sample of twelve former elite athletes and these behaviors were categorized under eight headings: belittling, humiliating, shouting, scapegoating, rejecting, isolating, threatening and ignoring; the results showed that all of the participants reported experiencing belittling and shouting by their coach, nine athletes reported frequent threatening behavior, nine reported frequent humiliation, seven reported scapegoating, six reported rejection or being ignored and four reported being isolated when they were elite child athletes (Gervis & Dunn, 2004). Another interesting aspect to this study is that all participants reported that the behavior of their coaches changed and became more negative after they were identi-ed as elite performers. It is reasonable to suspect that the identification of an athlete as "elite" increases the expectations of their discipline and performance. Other findings included the participants reports of feeling stupid, worthless, upset, less con-dent, humiliated, depressed, fearful and angry as a result of the behavior of their coaches.

So far this study has illustrated methods in which authority figures may exercise their influence to facilitate unhealthy behaviors in athletes regarding their body image or performance abilities, however there are far more egregious abuses of power that are also common among elite athletes. Sexual harassment, based similarly on the concept of power dynamics, has been well-established with society in general as well as in the sporting world (Krauchek & Ranson, 585). However, the extent into which sexual harassment occurs in elite sporting seems to depend upon the location, culture, and broader context in which the harassment occurs. For example, one study carried out with over six hundred Norwegian female athletes showed no higher rates of sexual harassment in these athletes that were found in a sample of non-athlete females (Fasting, Brackenridge, & Sundgot, 2003). Therefore, such evidence suggests that sexual harassment in sports is consistent with what is found in the general population and that the power dynamics within elite sports does not amplify of prevent the rates of occurrences. However, there was also an exception noted that stated that the elite status female athletes were in fact at more risk to experience sexual harassment than the control group.

Similar results were found in studies in other locations such as the Czech Republic. The female elite athletes in this study were statically more likely to experience sexual harassment at the elite level when compared to competitive female athletes that were not considered to be competing at an elite level (Fasting, Brackenridge, & Knorre, 2010). The theory was provided that once women reach an elite level in competitive sporting environments, that these environments are traditionally male dominated which allows for the power dynamics to influence abuses of power at greater rates than found elsewhere. However, another interesting aspect to the study of the athletes in the Czech Republic also reveal that competitive, but not elite, female athletes were actually at less risk than being sexually harassed than their non-athlete counterparts. This may suggest that athletes may benefit from factors that ward off some instances of sexual harassment such as physical fitness and confidence.

Other studies seem to indicate that culture plays a role in the identification of sexual harassment, both within the sports culture that can be found within the sporting environment, but also in the culture in general. One study used a population of female athletes in Puerto Rico to determine the cultural norms that sexist behaviors are common and tolerated by athletes because they are perceived as "part of the game" as well as Hispanic-Caribbean culture in general (Rodriguez & Gill, 2011). The researchers found that verbal harassment (e.g., jokes, sexual remarks) was more….....

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