TY - JOUR
T1 - The Safe Sport Allies bystander training
T2 - developing a multi-layered program for youth sport participants and their coaches to prevent harassment and abuse in local sport clubs
AU - Adriaens, Karolien
AU - Verhelle, Helena
AU - Peters, Gjalt Jorn Ygram
AU - Haerens, Leen
AU - Vertommen, Tine
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2024 Adriaens, Verhelle, Peters, Haerens and Vertommen.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - Harassment and abuse represent a pervasive and critical problem in sport with far-reaching consequences. Survivors’ testimonials underscore the profound and enduring impact of these experiences at individual, interpersonal, organizational and community level. Many of their stories reveal painful inaction from responsible adults in the sport organization, aggravating the harm. Other contributing factors to the harm inflicted include a culture of silence, lack of knowledge and understanding of what constitutes abuse, unawareness of reporting and supporting mechanisms, and fear of potential consequences. While effective bystander interventions have been developed outside the sport context, particularly targeting students in higher education, such initiatives have yet to be extensively adapted and assessed within the sport context. To address this gap, the Safe Sport Allies Erasmus+ collaborative partnership relied on the intervention mapping approach as a guiding framework to systematically develop a bystander training program (i.e., Safe Sport Allies) to train youth sport participants and youth sport coaches to act as effective bystanders. The current paper describes the comprehensive development process and provides an overview of implementation and evaluation possibilities. Throughout the paper, it is explained how each step of the Intervention Mapping approach shaped the Safe Sport Allies bystander training program. The program development, and the developed plans for implementation and evaluation are presented, shedding light on challenges encountered. The bystander training program developed in this paper and the implementation and evaluation plans can serve as an outline to build future interventions within this critical domain of safeguarding in sport.
AB - Harassment and abuse represent a pervasive and critical problem in sport with far-reaching consequences. Survivors’ testimonials underscore the profound and enduring impact of these experiences at individual, interpersonal, organizational and community level. Many of their stories reveal painful inaction from responsible adults in the sport organization, aggravating the harm. Other contributing factors to the harm inflicted include a culture of silence, lack of knowledge and understanding of what constitutes abuse, unawareness of reporting and supporting mechanisms, and fear of potential consequences. While effective bystander interventions have been developed outside the sport context, particularly targeting students in higher education, such initiatives have yet to be extensively adapted and assessed within the sport context. To address this gap, the Safe Sport Allies Erasmus+ collaborative partnership relied on the intervention mapping approach as a guiding framework to systematically develop a bystander training program (i.e., Safe Sport Allies) to train youth sport participants and youth sport coaches to act as effective bystanders. The current paper describes the comprehensive development process and provides an overview of implementation and evaluation possibilities. Throughout the paper, it is explained how each step of the Intervention Mapping approach shaped the Safe Sport Allies bystander training program. The program development, and the developed plans for implementation and evaluation are presented, shedding light on challenges encountered. The bystander training program developed in this paper and the implementation and evaluation plans can serve as an outline to build future interventions within this critical domain of safeguarding in sport.
KW - abuse
KW - bystander
KW - education
KW - efficacy
KW - harassment
KW - intervention mapping
KW - prevention
KW - sport
U2 - 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1389280
DO - 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1389280
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85197387608
SN - 1664-1078
VL - 15
SP - 1
EP - 11
JO - Frontiers in Psychology
JF - Frontiers in Psychology
M1 - 1389280
ER -