A UVic-UCC study highlights gender-based violence behaviours in youth sport

The acceptance and levels of tolerance of gender-based violence among adolescents and young people have increased in recent years, and although social media is the forum where these behaviours are gaining the most momentum, they are also overcoming digital barriers, and taking place in everyday settings such as sports clubs. This context is the starting point for the project "Prevention and Awareness of Gender Violence among adolescents: contributions by the world of sport," which aims to make these situations more visible, prevent them from happening and raise young people's awareness of them. The project was carried out by the researchers Montse Martín and Ester Checa, of the Sport and Physical Activity research group (GREAF) at the University of Vic - Central University of Catalonia (UVic-UCC), working with Lluís Franch, a former student at the University. The end result is a video aimed at adolescents and young people which highlights some of the behaviours involving gender violence that can take place in a male dressing room, and suggests measures for dealing with them.

"The widespread use of social networks has led to a significant increase in adolescents' levels of tolerance of gender violence," explains Montse Martín, who says that "young people are subjected to social pressure from all sides, to the extent that adolescent girls accept boys having control over their bodies and their private lives as something natural, while at the same time, boys also increasingly consider this way of doing things as normal." According to the researcher, this normalisation ends up affecting how regulated sport is played in everyday environments.

With this in mind, the project created a forum for debate which was designed to determine the adolescents' opinion of their consent to certain attitudes involving gender violence. Two sessions were organised with two basketball clubs in the city of Vic: the Osona Female Basketball Club and the Vic Basketball Club. In these sessions, girls and boys belonging to federated youth teams (aged between 16 and 18 years old) discussed the topic, and their comments contributed to the production of the awareness-raising video that was released on Tuesday 12 January. "In the long term, the goal is for young people to feel able to take a stand, and even to get the adult leaders of the club involved, in order to change a male-dominated sports culture that is quick to normalise behaviours and actions that fall within what is considered gender violence," explains Martín.

The normalisation of gender violence behaviours

Three youth teams of players from the Osona Female Basketball Club and the members of a male youth team from Vic Basketball Club participated in the debate sessions. One of the main conclusions from the debates is that "girls are almost forced to endure harassment on social media, where they have to deal with boys who ask them repeatedly and in a "very annoying" way to go out with them. Neither the first, nor the second or the third "no" appears to be sufficient in these cases. Some of the girls also acknowledge that their team-mates have justified gender violence behaviour by their boyfriends, especially related to their boyfriends' control over their social networks, the company they keep and the friendships they have." The study also finds that girls are more afraid to go out alone at night than boys, and that "they repeatedly send messages of reassurance when they go out at night and arrive home."

The boys acknowledge that "controlling their girlfriends' lives is not healthy, and is the result of a lack of trust in them or even low self-esteem."

A video for taking a stand

The video produced within the project is available from this Tuesday on the UVic-UCC and Osona Sports Council channels, as well as those of various women's associations in the region. Using a specific case, it shows how gender violence behaviours can take place in sport and gives athletes tools "to take a stand against these behaviours and not to tolerate them." According to Martí, "these attitudes are too often considered normal, and the sports institutions are not doing enough to make them more visible or remedy them."

This video is part of a project funded by the State Agreement against Gender Violence (PEVG) programme of the Ministry of Equality of the Government of Spain. When carrying out this project and producing the resulting video, UVic-UCC was supported by the Municipal Sports Institute and Vic City Council as well as UMedia, UVic's audiovisual service.