Appropriate Behavior between Sport Coaches and Athletes

The Perceptions and the Experiences of Male Coaches and Female Athletes Concerning Sexual Harassment by Male Coaches to Female Athletes

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to have a more comprehensive understanding of the status-quo and characteristics of sexual harassment (SH) in sport by comparatively examining both male coaches’ and female athletes’ awareness and experiences of SH in sport settings. Data was collected by questionnaire. Respondents were asked to answer whether or not they think appropriate 16 kinds of behavior that could be considered SH performed by male coaches against female athletes (including 1 behavior against male athletes). They were also asked how many times they had experienced such behavior by a 3-point scale. In addition, only athletes were asked whether or not such behavior is acceptable. Questionnaires were conducted with 3,734 coaches and 1,162 athletes older than 18 (both including male and female) from September 2007 to August 2008, and 1,406 (37.7%) coaches and 418 (36.0%) athletes responded. 577 male coaches and 144 female athletes who have competed at national level or higher were available for statistical analysis. The 15 behavior items were divided into 4 categories; ① Personal comments or approaches, ② Coaching related behavior , ③ Gender harassment, ④ Intimacy, and then analyzed ( 1 behavior was left out from this analysis). Female athletes tended to be more tolerant of those 15 kinds of behavior while male coaches tended to understand that such behavior could be SH. The both parties experienced more “Personal comments or approaches” than the ratio of the positive perceptions of them, and the female athletes accepted those kinds of behavior though they thought it inappropriate. “Coaching related behavior” tended to be positively understood as a part of coaching; however, this category could have been a gray zone that the both parties had ambivalent perceptions and experiences.