Article ID: 2025-010
This study examined whether parents’ gratitude toward their children’s coaches inhibits their intention to report incidents of corporal punishment in extracurricular school sports settings. Applying the protection motivation theory, two scenario-based experimental studies were conducted with mothers of junior high school students who participated in extracurricular sports activities. In Study 1, no inhibitory effect of parental gratitude on reporting intention was observed. This finding may be attributable to insufficient manipulation of gratitude and parents’ perception of reporting corporal punishment as a parental responsibility rather than a discretionary action. Study 2 employed a revised scenario designed to strengthen the manipulation of gratitude and examined whether the results differed depending on whether the victim was the participant’s own child or another child. The analysis indicated that parents’ gratitude toward coaches does not differentially influence reporting intention based on whether the victim was their own child or another child. Moreover, even when the manipulation of gratitude was successful, no inhibitory effect was noted. However, given limitations related to the ecological validity of the hypothetical scenarios and a potential ceiling effect in the measurement of intention, future studies should reexamine these hypotheses using ecologically grounded designs and alternative measurement strategies.
