Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Franco Zengaro
Middle Tennessee State University
Sally Zengaro
University of Alabama
Marcello Malfi
ICT, Castrolibero, Italy
Fan Violence—Catania-Palermo
Team Violence—Inter
World Cup: Argentina-Germany
Banned Substances
Rugby
Rioting after Univ. of MN Hockey
game
Research Problem
Cox (2002) wrote that part of the problem
surrounding sports and moral behavior is
that many sports, particularly high contact
sports, often seem to encourage
aggressive behavior that would normally
be unacceptable outside of the sports
context.
Bracketed Morality
Sports legitimize acts of aggression that
would normally be considered against
one’s moral standards.
In order to participate in sports
competitions, athletes must suspend the
level of morality that they would normally
use in every day life (Bredemeier, 1994;
Cox, 2002).
Question
How does aggression in sports influence
the moral development of youth?
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this research is to
investigate the relationship between
sports participation and the moral
development of Italian adolescents.
Literature
Bredemeier (1983, 1985) has linked
aggressive tendencies in sport participants
to lower levels of moral reasoning.
Bredemeier (1994) found that children
who had higher levels of moral reasoning
showed lower levels of aggression in
response to conflict.
Literature
Telama & Liukkonen (1999) found that
boys who played organized sports were
more prone to aggression than boys who
didn’t.
Segrave, Hastad, and colleagues have
found a negative relationship between
sports participation and acts of
delinquency.
Sports and Ethical Conduct
Silva (1983) Females—those who hadn’t played sports and those
who had played more than 11 years approved of
more fouls. Males—those who had participated in
sports in high school or college approved of more
fouls than those who hadn’t played sports or who
played in only youth sports.
Kavussanu and A relationship between ego orientation and moral
Roberts (2001) judgments about of fouls and cheating in sport.
Ommundsen, A performance orientation was associated with lower
Roberts, Lemyre, levels of moral functioning, lower sportspersonship,
and Treasure (2003) and a higher rate of approval of inappropriate sports
behavior.
Kavussanu and An ego orientation mediated the relationship
Ntoumanis (2003) between sports participation and moral functioning.
Romand, Pantaleon, and While moral reasoning increased
Cabagno (2009) with age, soccer players also
became more approving of
inappropriate behavior.
13-14 26 0-2 80
3-4 66
15-16 124
5-6 54
17-18 111
7-8 37
18+ 53 8+ 77
Data Collection
The participants completed demographic
data, the Attitudes about Moral Decision-
making in Youth Sport Questionnaire
(AMDYSQ), a Questionnaire on Prosocial
Behavior, and a Questionnaire on Moral
Disengagement.
Data Analysis
55
50
45 Males
Means
40 Females
35
30
0 to 2 3 to 4 5 to 6 7 to 8 Over 8
Years
It appears that playing sports moderates
the relationship between age and gender
and acceptance of sportspersonship. Age
and gender alone do not have a significant
relationship with sportspersonship.
Research Question 2
There was no significant difference in
keeping winning in proportion across age
groups.
Graph 3—Keeping Winning in
Proportion
Research Question 3
Negative and significant correlation
between cheating and prosocial behavior.
Negative and significant correlation
between sportspersonship and prosocial
behavior.
There was a positive and significant
relationship between keeping winning in
proportion and prosocial behavior.
Graph 4—Prosocial Behavior
Research Question 4