Managing research on violence to children in sport Celia Brackenridge celia.brackenridge@brunel.ac.uk www.celiabrackenridge.com Centre for Youth Sport & Athlete Welfare Sp Dvt 26 Apr 2008

Outline Definitions of violence Limitations to violence research Management issues Researcher-manager tensions Sp Dvt 26 Apr 2008

Defining violence to children in sport “all forms of physical or mental violence, injury and abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse” (UN CRC Article 19) “the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against a child, by an individual or group, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in actual or potential harm to the child’s health, survival, development or dignity” (World Report on Violence & Health, 2002) Sp Dvt 26 Apr 2008

Defining violence to children in sport Discrimination and harassment on the basis of sex, race or sexual orientation Sexual violence Groomed or forced sex/rape Use of pornography Sexual degradation Sexualised initiations, bullying and hazing Physical maltreatment: Overtraining Playing while injured Peer aggression Parental maltreatment Doping/drug abuse Alcohol abuse Emotional and psychological abuse Neglect Child labour and trafficking (Adapted from UNICEF, 2008) Sp Dvt 26 Apr 2008

Limitations in researching violence to children in sport sensitive subject definitions and age boundaries vary marginal status or silencing of athletes design variations across cultures problematic nature of child assent Sp Dvt 26 Apr 2008

Limitations in researching violence to children in sport validity and reliability different parameters gender blindness discipline traditions sport a physical but not a political right Sp Dvt 26 Apr 2008

Management issues Problem definition and ownership Managing political expectations and avoiding cultural imperialism Managing subjectivity Managing insider-outsider relations Managing the gender politics of fieldwork Managing our own conceptual frameworks Sp Dvt 26 Apr 2008

Effective researcher-managers in children’s sport for development reflexive sociology process evaluation tie our work to child rights NGOs Sp Dvt 26 Apr 2008

Thank you! Sp Dvt 26 Apr 2008