Part 3 GLOBAL ISSUES: HARASSMENT AND ABUSE RESEARCH

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3.9 Swimming coaches’ perceptions of appropriateness and role conflict and role ambiguity as a response to child protection measures in England 1 Joy D. Bringer and Lynne H. Johnston Background In 1995, a former British Olympic swimming coach was sentenced to 17 years in prison for sexually abusing swimmers he coached. Since his conviction, and several other high profile cases of sexually abusive coaches, child protection policy development has increased exponentially within sport in the United Kingdom (UK). 2, 3 Many coaches in the UK are now required by their governing body to receive child protection training. In 2005, the Football Association reported that nearly 100,000 coaches in the UK had attended child protection workshops and another coach education organisation in the UK reported that nearly 30,000 coaches 4, 5 attended their child protection workshops between 2006 and 2007. When this research project started in 1999, previous research on abuse in 6, 7 sport had focused on, or was focusing on athletes’ experiences of abuse, prevalence rates 8, 9 and athlete responses to abuse. 10, 11 Aside from a couple of studies examining coaches’ perceptions of harassment and abuse, 12, 13 coaches’ experiences in relation to child protection measures had generally been ignored. If policy makers are successfully to reduce opportunities for harassment and abuse to be perpetrated by coaches, it is important first to understand the reasons coaches give for making decisions about appropriate and inappropriate behaviour. Therefore, this study took a qualitative approach to identify what might influence the perceptions of male swimming coaches living in England of the appropriateness of See 13 coach-athlete sexual relationships. The aim of the study shifted based on coaches’ comments during the first phase of data collection. The focus thus moved to examining the impact of child protection measures on the swimming coaches. This chapter provides a brief review of both areas of this research study which are published in more depth elsewhere. 13, 14 Research design 62 62
Nineteen male swimming coaches participated in one of four focus groups, and three additional coaches were interviewed separately. Males, rather than females, were selected for this study not only because they are over represented in coaching at the high school, 15 university 16 and elite levels 8, 17 but also because the majority of reported sexual abuse is by male perpetrators. 18, 19 Brackenridge and Kirby have hypothesised that athletes within the ‘stage of imminent achievement’ (high level athletes who have the potential to, but have not yet earned elite honours) may be most vulnerable to coaches who groom them for sexual abuse. 20 Therefore, males coaching swimmers within this age range for swimming (about 13 to 17 years old) at international, national and developmental levels were selected for this study. The coaches ranged in age from 27 to 67 years old, had been coaching for an average of 17 years, and spent on average 22 hours a week coaching swimming. In line with grounded theory techniques 21 our initial analysis of the focus groups guided the selection of three swimming coaches (who had not participated in the focus groups) for individual interviews. These coaches were purposively selected to further our emerging understanding of coaches’ perceptions of appropriateness and the effect of child protection measures on coaching. The three coaches were selected on the following basis: the first had received a conviction for sexually assaulting a female swimmer in his care; the second was in a committed relationship with a swimmer who he was coaching; and the third had been suspended (and then cleared) by the Amateur Swimming Association during an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct. Ethical considerations such as confidentiality, researcher safety and procedures for dealing with new allegations of abuse were all addressed prior to commencing data collection. 22 The procedures used for the data collection and analysis are detailed elsewhere, and therefore are 13, 14, 23, 24 not repeated here. Key findings Perceptions of appropriateness The results from this study indicate that these coaches first and foremost based decisions of appropriateness about sexual relationships with swimmers on the legal age of consent. All the coaches in this study agreed that sex with an athlete under the age of consent in England (16 years old) would be unacceptable. 63 63
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Part 3 GLOBAL ISSUES: HARASSMENT AN
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It was in the middle of these early
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more likely to be harassed and/or a
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The survey revealed a considerable
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8. Kirby, S.L. and Greaves, L. ‘F
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Page 15 and 16: High Low Figure 3.1 Athletes’ exp
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Page 21 and 22: een harassed and abused by a coach.
Page 23 and 24: The results show that 30% of the st
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Page 33 and 34: automatically mean that he/she will
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Page 39 and 40: 3.6 Risks and opportunities for sex
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Page 43 and 44: These findings indicated that clubs
Page 45 and 46: Whilst 8% of sports clubs knew of s
Page 47 and 48: 3.7 Sexual harassment among female
Page 49 and 50: slapped on the face, head or ears b
Page 51 and 52: When I was not getting as good achi
Page 53 and 54: 3.8 Unwanted sexual experiences in
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Page 57 and 58: Coach behaviour Perceptions Experie
Page 59 and 60: However, KULeuven students’ perce
Page 61: 7. Leahy, T., Pretty, G., and Tenen
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Page 69 and 70: 3.10 What price gold medals? An inv
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Page 73 and 74: symptoms. Lastly, this will only oc
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Part 3 GLOBAL ISSUES: HARASSMENT AND ABUSE RESEARCH

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