Non-accidental Violence in Sport

Article summary

This study offers a systematic qualitative review about organizational antecedents of non-accidental violence in sport. The authors seek to understand harmful interactions between individuals and examine participants' interpretations of their experiences. A qualitative systematic review allows synthesizing information, reexamining, and comparing findings from multiple studies. It also enables critical systematic reflection of non-accidental violence from an organizational perspective.

The authors reviewed 43 publications selected using the PRISMA framework. The results show that structural factors and motivational factors contribute to non-accidental violence in sport. Specifically, organizational tolerance, conformity to values, power imbalance, and instrumental beliefs are most conducive to psychological abuse. For instance, some coaches and even athletes use instrumental beliefs to drive performance, avoid failure, and keep interpersonal control. Tolerance and conformity to values coupled with instrumental beliefs and winner-takes-all are accessories to physical abuse. For example, some athletes use physical abuse on the field to undermine their competitors. Finally, sexual abuse is more likely when there is tolerance, power imbalance, and isolation, either physical or psychological. 

This blog post presents a brief summary of the article's key findings as an introduction to the topic. There is valuable information to be gleaned from reading the entire article. Graduate students are responsible for finding the article, interpreting the content, and discussing its content as it pertains to the course assignment(s) so they can make individual progress towards the course's assessment standards. The skills gained from completing these activities are helpful during the course, in preparing for comprehensive examinations at the end of the program, and post-graduation. There is a presentation in the video below by Marquis that you may also find helpful. 

Presenter: Marquis

Pre-presentation struggles:

Roberts, V., Sojo, V., & Grant, F. (2019;2020;). Organisational factors and non-accidental violence in sport: A systematic review. Sport Management Review, 23(1), 8-27. doi:10.1016/j.smr.2019.03.001

Paralympic female athletes

    I just read the most fascinating article in the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology.  The authors did research on good coaching attributes from the perspective of current and retired Paralympic female athletes.  They interviewed 8 Canadian Paralympic female athletes who had an impressive average record of competing in 4 Paralympics and winning 8 Paralympic or Pan Am medals (Alexander et al., 2020) 

    The findings were so interesting. Positive coaching behaviors were those that improved athletic performance or well-being, and included supporting the athletes on a personal level, improving performance by transmitting important and innovative knowledge.  The negative behaviors were those that hurt their performance or well-being.  Those included addressing their gender or their disability inappropriately (Alexander, 2020).  The inappropriate gender references is where I come in. 

    The athletes also had coaching preferences.  For example, some liked their coaches to be creative, others liked when the coach transferred able-body knowledge to the parasport context.  Some mentioned the need for female coaches, but recognizing it would be unfeasible due to their scarcity.  The authors make brilliant theoretical contributions, practical implications and suggestions for future research based on their study's limitations (Alexander, 2020).  I highly recommend you to read the article on your own if you are interested in getting more detailed information. 

    Now to the nitty-gritty.  Some research participants were routinely slapped on the butt.  This in addition to their gender being addressed inappropriately (Alexander, 2020).  The authors cite research stating people with disabilities are more likely to be mistreated, and women are more likely to be harassed (Kirby et al., 2008; Wachsmuth et al., 2017, as cited in Alexander, 2020).  Research also shows gender and sexual minorities are harassed disproportionately in sports (Kokkonen, 2019).  So sexual minorities (think GLBTQIA+) with disabilities are in double jeopardy.  

    As our future leaders in the sport industry, you should not just be up to date with the most recent literature in marketing and management.   You should also read the sociology, psychology, and other sport sciences literature to be well rounded.  It is your job as a citizen of the world to be socially responsible and know statistics like the ones mentioned here.  After knowing they are more vulnerable to mistreatment, I hope you would now be more likely to treat your superiors, peers, subordinates, clients, etc with respect if they have any of the characteristics mentioned here.  I also encourage you to be a proactive bystander and report or intervene when you witness incivilities towards them. 


Alexander, D., Bloom, G. A., & Taylor, S. L. (2020). Female Paralympic athlete views of effective and ineffective coaching practices. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology: Psychology of Sports Coaching, 32(1), 48-63. doi:10.1080/10413200.2018.1543735


Kokkonen, M. (2019). Associations between sexual and gender-based harassment by a coach and psychological ill-being amongst gender and sexual minority sport participants in Finland. Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology, 13(2), 259-273. doi:10.1123/jcsp.2018-0035