The Impact of Sports Participation on Violence and Victimization among Rural Minority Adolescent Girls

The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of sports participation and race/ethnicity on violence and victimization among a sample of white, African American, and Hispanic rural-area high school girls. It was hypothesized that girls who participated in sports would report lower rates of vio...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Women in sport & physical activity journal 2010-03, Vol.19 (1), p.3-13
Main Authors: Taylor, Matthew J, Wamser, Rachel A, Sanchez, Michelle E
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aggressiveness (Psychology) in adolescence
Assaults
Athletic ability
Females
Rape
Self esteem
Sex crimes
Sports
Teenage girls
Victims of crime
Violent crime
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of sports participation and race/ethnicity on violence and victimization among a sample of white, African American, and Hispanic rural-area high school girls. It was hypothesized that girls who participated in sports would report lower rates of violent behavior and fewer incidents of victimization. Using logistic regression and multivariate analysis of variance, evidence for the hypotheses was mixed and appeared to be related to the type of violence and victimization. Sports participants were less likely to engage in general violence and reported less physical and sexual victimization, but did not experience less intimate partner violence victimization. Conversely, sports participants were more likely to engage in verbal and physical reactive violence. While sports participation may have some preventative impact on violence and victimization, this relationship may also be influenced by community characteristics and not a universal outcome.
ISSN:1063-6161
1938-1581
DOI:10.1123/wspaj.19.1.3