Listening to the Athlete Experience to Identify Risk and Protective Factors
Prevention Education Series
The goal of this series is to bridge the gap between prevention education theory with on-the-ground practice.
Those of us in the prevention education field love a good metaphor. Using non-abuse related examples to explain prevention concepts can help mitigate defensiveness and increase a learner’s receptiveness to paradigm shifts about sensitive subject matter. In this post I want to draw from what we know about icebergs and apply it to abuse prevention in sport.
Icebergs are massive clumps of ice, floating in open water. It is estimated that 90% of an iceberg’s mass is below the surface, meaning we can only see a small portion—the “tip of the iceberg” if you will. Even if the visible part of an iceberg is large or imposing, it still pales in comparison to the vast ice beneath.
What does this have to do with abuse prevention?
Typically, organizations approach safeguarding by addressing policies and procedures. Legal experts work together to create guidelines and ensure that those guidelines are embedded in formal aspects of the organization like staff training, handbooks, contracts, and agreements. Organizational procedures can include requirements for formal background checks before hiring or maintaining rosters for mandatory trainings.
Now, don’t get me wrong … all these things are critical to abuse prevention. In many ways, policy is the backbone of individual and organizational accountability, which is why considerable time, money, and effort go into creating comprehensive policy and procedures. Meaningful culture change can’t happen without strong policy. But as we have learned from the experiences of athletes, abuse happens even at organizations with strong policies and procedures in place.
From an abuse prevention perspective, it is important to note that policy is only the tip of the iceberg of culture change. The vast majority of us involved in sport at the grassroots or even elite levels are not attorneys. We will never be in boardrooms wordsmithing policy or interfacing with case law to determine exact thresholds for behavior. But most of us WILL be interacting with staff, athletes, parents, and volunteers on a regular basis, overhearing conversations in locker rooms, attending year-end celebrations, setting team expectations, witnessing coaching techniques from the sidelines, and sitting at tables where decisions are made about things like uniforms, team captains, and who wins sportsmanship character awards.
Applying the iceberg metaphor, the majority of us in sport work and play below the surface, witnessing behaviors that might not technically violate a policy, but surely contribute to a culture where abuse can thrive. Long term culture change happens by embracing the power and responsibility we have below the surface and using our spheres of influence to replace risk factors with protective factors.
What Lies Under the Iceberg?
When abuse prevention experts talk about risk factors, we’re referring to the specific things that make athletes more vulnerable to abuse in a particular context. Risk factors also apply to dynamics that present barriers to reporting.
Identity
Research tells us that some aspects of a person’s identity—such as sex, gender, or disability—means they are at a greater risk for experiencing abuse. For example, girls are more likely than boys to experience child sexual abuse. We also know that disabled athletes are more likely to experience psychological, physical and sexual harms than athletes without disabilities.
Behavior
Some risks are centered around behaviors that are dangerous or cross boundaries. Forcing someone to train in unsafe conditions, criticizing an athlete’s body weight, holding someone underwater against their will, making an unwanted sexual comment—these are all behaviors that cross boundaries but are often tolerated as being “part of the sport” or even praised for keeping athletes “tough.”
Environment
Some physical environments present more risk than others. Locker rooms are often high-risk areas for inappropriate behavior, like sexual harassment and hazing. Athletes that practice at elite training facilities may experience more intense, one-on-one training with their coaches that leave them vulnerable to abuse. Billeting programs in sports like hockey and equestrian are high-risk environments where athletes may be isolated from their regular support systems and fearful of reporting abuse.
Sport Culture
Emotional, physical, and sexual harm is often a normalized part of sport culture, especially at elite levels. Athlete health and well-being often take a backseat to winning. For example, aggressive “jock culture,” especially in male-dominated sports, has been shown to increase violence and bullying behaviors. Some athletes in sports like gymnastics and figure skating report feeling sexualized with uniforms, costumes, and choreography, but it’s so common as to be “normal.”
Enforcement of Organizational Policies and Practices
Sport organizations often have comprehensive policies and procedures to prevent and respond to abuse, but when those policies are not enforced regularly, abuse can thrive. Some organizations have a history of ignoring abuse allegations, creating a culture of silence that discourages athletes from reporting.
What Have We Learned from Athletes?
To fully understand the risk factors that lead to abuse, it’s important to hear directly from athletes. Understanding their experiences gives us a better idea of what is happening under the water—metaphorically AND (in the case of some water sports) literally.
In 2024, the U.S. Center for SafeSport partnered with an independent research firm, Pacific Research and Evaluation, to conduct our second ever Athlete Culture & Climate Survey. When we talk about “culture and climate,” we are referring to the characteristics, behaviors, attitudes, and values of a group. Our goal was to gain a better understanding of the experiences of athletes, particularly when it comes to emotional, physical, and sexual abuse in sport.
Here are some things we learned from the survey, which captured the experiences of nearly 4,000 athletes:
- Nearly half (48.0%) of athletes who identified as a gender other than man or woman experienced gender-based discrimination.
- More than one third (36.0%) of athletes who identified themselves as having a disability responded that they had experienced discrimination based on their disability.
- Black athletes were more likely to have experienced racial discrimination during their athletic involvement (36.9%), compared to athletes with other racial identities. Black athletes also reported higher rates of harassment from security at sporting events.
- Nearly 4 in 5 athletes (78.4%) shared that they had experienced behaviors related to emotional harm and neglect during their sports involvement.
- A little over one-third (35.3%) of athletes experienced behaviors related to physical harm/threat of harm during their sports involvement. The most commonly experienced behavior related to physical harm was being punished with excessive exercise.
- Nearly 11% (10.9%) of athletes indicated that they had experienced unwanted sexual contact or sexually explicit behaviors during their sports involvement. Coaches or assistant coaches were the most common perpetrators of non-consensual sexual touching, followed by athlete peers.
- Over half of surveyed athletes (53.1%) shared that during the time period of their sport participation they struggled with depression or anxiety.
With ongoing research like this, we can go beyond the “tip of the iceberg” and work to fully understand the experiences of athletes and where we can better protect them by implementing protective factors.
What Protective Factors Help Reduce Risk?
Protecting athletes from abuse is not done through one policy or practice. But we can work to implement layers of protection that help lower the risks. Let’s look at a few examples of how we can lower the risk of abuse and improve the physical and emotional well-being of athletes.
Prevention Policies
Prevention policies can be used as a tool to reduce risk. For example, the Minor Athlete Abuse Prevention Policies (MAAPP) limit one-on-one interactions between adults and minors where abuse is more likely to happen. All organizations in the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Movement must follow the MAAPP. Organizations outside the Movement can use the MAAPP as an example for setting their own policies.
Trauma-Informed Coaching
The Culture & Climate Survey revealed that athletes are much more likely to have experienced sexual harm outside of the context of their sport than within it. For many athletes, sports present a much-needed haven and a place to find support. But these experiences of abuse outside of sport can affect how athletes train, build trust with coaches and teammates, and perform in their sport. Practicing trauma-informed coaching means being aware of the needs of athletes who have experienced trauma. When we prioritize relationship-building, have a consistent structure, provide transparency, and care about athletes’ well-being, all athletes perform better. You can find more information about trauma-informed coaching and ways to safeguard athletes from abuse with our Emotional and Physical Abuse and Misconduct Toolkit.
Access to Support and Resources
It’s important for athletes to have easy access to support and resources. People who have consistent access to information and support services are more likely to reach out when they need help. The Center’s Process Navigators are an example of a support tool for athletes going through a SafeSport investigation. Process Navigators have extensive experience providing trauma-informed care. They can answer questions and connect athletes with mental health support, educational materials, and legal representation.
Prevention Education
Research tells us that prevention education should be theory-informed and data-driven. Comprehensive training programs should be drawn from data and research about the experiences of athletes. It should also cover the risk factors that lead to abuse and the protective factors that help reduce risk. Explore our SafeSport courses to better understand the dynamics of sport culture and how to recognize, prevent, and respond to abuse.
Culture Change Starts Small
It may seem daunting to consider the impact of abuse in sport and hear that we are responsible for 90% of culture change. But rather than feeling overwhelmed, I invite us to consider a reframe to instead feel empowered by the significant power we have to shift culture. For most of us below the water, it won’t require a law degree or millions of dollars. It simply requires that we pay attention, learn about the risk and protective factors in our own sports, listen to the experiences of athletes, and find seemingly small ways to shift the culture within our own spheres of influence every day. The Education team at SafeSport is here to help with these efforts. If we work together to take a deeper dive, we can absolutely change the culture of sport.
Monica Rivera
VP of Prevention Education at the U.S. Center for SafeSport
Monica has spent nearly two decades in the field of interpersonal violence prevention, much of that time working directly with survivors of abuse. She leads our team of subject matter experts who share a belief in the transformative power of prevention education.
Do you have any questions or ideas? Please reach out to [email protected].
Featured Resource
In 2024, the U.S. Center for SafeSport partnered with an independent research firm, Pacific Research and Evaluation, to conduct our second ever Athlete Culture & Climate Survey. The findings highlight the need for culture change in sport and will guide our efforts to help athletes at every level thrive and fulfill their potential.
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