Prosocial and Aggressive Behavior Occurrence in Young Athletes: Field Research Results in Six European Countries

Ivana Milovanović, Ambra Gentile, Tea Gutović, Ana Kezić, Doris Matošić, Rasa Kreivytė, Irena Valantine, Gioacchino Daidone, Antonino Bianco, Dijana Radjo, Borislav Obradović and Patrik Drid
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Ivana Milovanović: Faculty of Sport and Physical Education, University of Novi Sad, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia
Ambra Gentile: Department of Psychology, Educational Science and Human Movement, Università degli Studi di Palermo, 90128 Palermo, Italy
Tea Gutović: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of Sociology, University of Split, 21000 Split, Croatia
Ana Kezić: Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Split, 21000 Split, Croatia
Doris Matošić: Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Split, 21000 Split, Croatia
Rasa Kreivytė: Department of Coaching Sciences, Lithuanian Sports University, LT- 44221 Kaunas, Lithuania
Irena Valantine: Department of Coaching Sciences, Lithuanian Sports University, LT- 44221 Kaunas, Lithuania
Gioacchino Daidone: Department of Psychology, Educational Science and Human Movement, Università degli Studi di Palermo, 90128 Palermo, Italy
Antonino Bianco: Department of Psychology, Educational Science and Human Movement, Università degli Studi di Palermo, 90128 Palermo, Italy
Dijana Radjo: School of Economics and Business, University of Sarajevo, 71000 Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Borislav Obradović: Faculty of Sport and Physical Education, University of Novi Sad, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia
Patrik Drid: Faculty of Sport and Physical Education, University of Novi Sad, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 12, 1-13

Abstract: Aggression and violence among youth are researched as social phenomena in sport. This paper was designed to determine the occurrence of these behaviors as well as prosocial behaviors among young athletes. The current paper is a research report aiming to detect the frequency of aggressive behavior, social exclusion, prosocial behavior and cohesion in the youth environment, the frequency of personal experience of peer violence or social exclusion, and to evaluate cross-national differences in terms of occurrence of these phenomena.The field research was conducted in six European countries (Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Italy, Lithuania, and Serbia) on a sample of 482 children aged 6 to 16. The conducted questionnaire consisted of pre-existing scales and measures for specific behaviors and social aspects that formed the Youth Environment Assessment and Youth Characteristics Questionnaire. Previous personal experience of violence and social exclusion determined groups in the sample. One-way ANOVA and discriminant analysis were conducted to compare various variables and groups within the sample. The results have shown that aggressive and social exclusion behaviors are rare or very rare, predominantly in the form of verbal aggression in the sports club environment. The results of the conducted discriminant analysis indicate that prosocial and cohesion behaviors occur “quite often” to “often” among sports club athletes’ samples. The percentage of athletes who have had personal experience of violence or social exclusion in the last two years and whose feeling of hurt by that experience was assessed as “a lot” or “fully” on the measurement scale is estimated to be approximately 25%. Mild cross-national differences emerged in the overmentioned variables, probably due to the sample specificity, or to cultural variety. The results indicate the need for longitudinal research on this topic since the sport is an environment in which cohesion can be developed among young athletes, but it is not free from social exclusion or aggression.

Keywords: aggression; social exclusion; motivation; youth; sport (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:12:p:5085-:d:374849

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