Speaker
Description
In a number of Western countries, the protection and safeguarding of children and youth in sport has come to the focus of both scientific research and policy measures in the past decades. Contrary to this, in post socialist countries, including Hungary, the topic has only come to the agenda in the past few years, partly because of a number of scandals related to past incidents of violence in coaching, and partly because attitudes towards verbal and physical violence have changed over time. The objective of the paper is (1) to introduce the r&d project entitled GYISZVÉD, which was launched to address the issue (2) to describe the sports-cultural context in which we have to work for our goal, and (3) to present the initial results of a survey carried out among a national sample of sports coaches working in Hungary, with various age groups at different levels. The results of the survey are to be presented according to the following dimensions: (a) coaches’ awareness and knowledge of the topic, (b) their views on the role and competencies of the coach and their motivations in these situations, (c) the organizational contexts they work in, and (4) their experience and potential actions when encountering incidents. The analysis will also reflect on how the historical and cultural context may influence the results, what impact the first two years of the project have had on the state of affairs, and what opportunities and limitations there are for possible future interventions in the field.
