Bullying in Recreation and Sport Settings: Exploring Risk Factors, Prevention Efforts, and Intervention Strategies
Keywords:
bullying, peer victimization, youth, recreation and sport settings, preventionAbstract
Bullying is a social phenomenon defined as repeated negative actions that involve a differential of power whereby the individual who is more powerful attacks or harasses the individual who is less powerful with an intention to harm or disturb (Olweus, 1993). The social, emotional, and physical consequences for youth who are bullied are significant. Research on bullying, bullying prevention, and bullying intervention has focused mainly on the school settings and the role of school administrators and teachers (Monks et al., 2009). Bullying occurs in out-of-school settings including recreation and sport settings, but limited research exists. The purpose of the study was to explore (a) factors that are perceived as contributing to bullying behavior in youth-serving recreation and sport environments and (b) what administrators and staff do to prevent bullying and to respond when it occurs. Semistructured, face-to-face interviews were used to collect data in 31 youth-serving sport and recreation organizations from 31 administrators and 40 leaders, coaches, or supervisors representing 10 municipal recreation departments, 16 nonprofit organizations, and five commercial organizations in New Brunswick, Canada. The findings suggest organizational culture, program elements, bullying behaviors that begin in other settings, and peer group dynamics define perceptions of bullying as well as prevention and intervention efforts. Administrators trained staff to prevent and respond to bullying, developed procedures that communicated expectations related to behavior, and clearly expressed their values related to safe environments for program participants in an effort to create a climate that would not support bullying. Competitive environments, limited supervision, and unstructured time were program elements perceived as increasing the likelihood of bullying behaviors. Administrators and leaders worked at altering program elements to reduce opportunities for bullying behavior to develop or thrive. It was discovered that not all peer relationship problems begin within the recreation and sport context, but rather can spill over from school, neighborhood, or home settings. Finally, there was understanding that positive group norms need to be created and the ways in which groups are structured can influence a climate that can either promote supportive relationships or fuel bullying behaviors.Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Sagamore Publishing LLC (hereinafter the “Copyright Owner”)
Journal Publishing Copyright Agreement for Authors
PLEASE REVIEW OUR POLICIES AND THE PUBLISHING AGREEMENT, AND INDICATE YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THE TERMS BY CHECKING THE ‘AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THIS COPYRIGHT NOTICE’ CHECKBOX BELOW.
I understand that by submitting an article to Journal of Park and Recreation Administration, I am granting the copyright to the article submitted for consideration for publication in Journal of Park and Recreation Administration to the Copyright Owner. If after consideration of the Editor of the Journal of Park and Recreation Administration, the article is not accepted for publication, all copyright covered under this agreement will be automatically returned to the Author(s).
THE PUBLISHING AGREEMENT
Assignment of Copyright
I hereby assign to the Copyright Owner the copyright in the manuscript I am submitting in this online procedure and any tables, illustrations or other material submitted for publication as part of the manuscript in all forms and media (whether now known or later developed), throughout the world, in all languages, for the full term of copyright, effective when the article is accepted for publication.
Reversion of Rights
Articles may sometimes be accepted for publication but later be rejected in the publication process, even in some cases after public posting in “Articles in Press” form, in which case all rights will revert to the Author.
Retention of Rights for Scholarly Purposes
I understand that I retain or am hereby granted the Retained Rights. The Retained Rights include the right to use the Preprint, Accepted Manuscript, and the Published Journal Article for Personal Use and Internal Institutional Use.
All journal material is under a 12 month embargo. Authors who would like to have their articles available as open access should contact gbates@sagamorepub.com for further information.
In the case of the Accepted Manuscript and the Published Journal Article, the Retained Rights exclude Commercial Use, other than use by the author in a subsequent compilation of the author’s works or to extend the Article to book length form or re-use by the author of portions or excerpts in other works.
Published Journal Article: the author may share a link to the formal publication through the relevant DOI.
Author Representations
- The Article I have submitted to the journal for review is original, has been written by the stated author(s) and has not been published elsewhere.
- The Article was not submitted for review to another journal while under review by this journal and will not be submitted to any other journal.
- The Article contains no libelous or other unlawful statements and does not contain any materials that violate any personal or proprietary rights of any other person or entity.
- I have obtained written permission from copyright owners for any excerpts from copyrighted works that are included and have credited the sources in the Article.
- If the Article was prepared jointly with other authors, I have informed the co-author(s) of the terms of this Journal Publishing Agreement and that I am signing on their behalf as their agent, and I am authorized to do so.