Abstract:

This study examines individuals who do elite-level sports sexual abuse experiences in childhood. A questionnaire, a quantitative data collection technique, was used in the research. In addition to the questions with demographic information, sexual abuse questions were asked to reveal the experienced abuse. A total of 206 people, 82 men and 124 women, were included in the study, in which the sample group consisted of people doing sports at the elite level. According to the obtained data, 33.5% of the participants were exposed to at least one type of sexual abuse. Female athletes (43.5%) experienced more abuse than male athletes (18.3%). In the study, it was determined that the most common forms of abuse that children are exposed to are "sexual comments about appearance or body", "troubling snuggling/contact" and "receiving sexual messages/e-mails/letters". It has been observed that child athletes who do individual sports are exposed to more abuse than team sports. "Older athletes" and "coaches" were ranked the highest when asked who the perpetrator was. Additionally, they were asked whether they shared the abuse they experienced, and most participants (66.7%) declared that they did not share their experiences with anyone. As a result, the data obtained from the study show that sexual abuse in sports poses a threat to children and child protection initiatives should be developed for children to do sports safely.

Keywords: