ISSN: 1543-9518|Vol. 24

Book Review: Athletics in the Ancient World

Reviewed by: Glaucio Scremin

In Athletics in the Ancient World, author Zahra Newby portrays athletics as integral to ancient culture, primarily ancient Greek culture. She describes how athletics influenced facets of ancient social life, including education and warfare. The book is divided into 16 short chapters that present issues ranging from the rise of professionalism in athletics to the role of women in ancient sport.

Filled with pictures, drawings, and schematics of ancient Greek athletic facilities, the book suggests the importance of athletics by providing the reader with a clear understanding of how ancient athletic activities were carried out. For further clarification, it provides geographical references.

With all of these guides, Athletics in the Ancient World is certainly well referenced. It is a pleasant and informative read for those interested in obtaining a historical perspective of ancient athletics. The book may serve as supplementary reading material for college courses in sports history.

Athletics in the Ancient World
Author: Zahra Newby
Published in 2006 by Bristol Classic Press: London, UK.
(108 pages, ISBN 1-85399-688-2).

2013-11-26T15:17:02-06:00March 14th, 2008|Sports Studies and Sports Psychology|Comments Off on Book Review: Athletics in the Ancient World
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Non-Economic Societal Impacts of Intercollegiate Athletics

Submitted by: David Larimore, Ph.D & George Chitiyo, Ph.D

Abstract:

Intercollegiate athletics impact society in numerous positive ways. A number of studies have been done seeking to establish the effects of these sports programs on athletes, their institutions, and society at large. This paper is a synthesis of the literature concerning the non-economic impacts of sports. The findings largely support the notion that athletics are beneficial, not only to athletes, but to society in general. Many important lessons and virtues are derived from athletics. Among the many benefits to higher education institutions are the concepts of attracting more admissions applications and enhancing institutional name recognition and visibility.

Introduction:

Athletics provide entertainment, physical development, social interaction, and business (Cigliano, 2006). They create platforms for individual recognition and institutional visibility. There are many positive externalities associated with athletic activities. Attaching monetary value to these effects is difficult, as the value is based on societal satisfaction measures that are hard to measure.

Athletics Mould Virtues

Athletics help shape the social character of participants (Rudd and Stoll, 2004). A sample of 595 students from several universities was used in a causal-comparative study in which athletes and non athletes were compared concerning social and moral character. There were significant differences between athletes and non athletes. The main conclusion was that sport helps build character in terms of teamwork, loyalty, and self-sacrifice. There is no evidence to support the idea that athletics help build moral character, though neither is it proven that they do not do so.

Yiannakis, Douvis, and Murdy (2003) studied the perceived economic and non-economic impacts of sports. The findings are based on a survey of 702 residents and students of Connecticut attending two universities. They measured the perceived impacts of sports in terms of job creation, infrastructure, image promotion, economic impacts, environmental impacts, crime, and deviancy, among others. The authors conjectured that conflicts, issues, ideologies, pain, success, and tragedy are all blended in sports. People identify with these and are able to better handle the challenges of life as they see teams fighting on the field of play.

Athletes learn the principles of self discipline, teamwork, winning and losing, hard work, and self confidence. They have their self esteem boosted (National Federation of High Schools, 2003). One athletics director at a community college within the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) said, “Athletics fulfill major commitments of our mission statement to educate the whole person, to develop teamwork and leaders, and to contribute to the personal health and well-being of our students” (Cigliano, 2006, p45).

Yiannakis et al. (2003) established that the perceptions of people regarding the positive impacts of sport differed based on whether one was a fan or not. Non fans tend to regard sports as a nuisance that causes traffic jams and pollution. Enthusiasts savor the joy brought by the victories of their teams. A relationship may exist between the degree of interest and the extent to which sports are perceived to be beneficial.

Cigliano’s (2006) qualitative study was done at two community colleges in the TBR to examine the economic, institutional, and human impacts of athletic programs. The participants from each college included the president, the athletics director, two coaches, and four student-athletes. Coaches from the colleges said they viewed athletics as vehicles that help some students stay in school. The discipline and structure in athletic programs help motivate student-athletes to take advantage of educational opportunities. The coaches spoke of employing discipline, monitoring class and study hall attendance, and using encouragement to motivate student-athletes to achieve academic goals and become academically successful. Indirectly, the study addressed the apparent conflict of goals between academic interests and athletics. As long as there is a good relationship between the sports departments and academics, goal conflict exists only as an abstract concept.

Student-athletes participating in Cigliano’s (2006) study stated the following as virtues they received: recognition, patience, becoming better persons, self-discipline, maturity, motivation, teamwork, knowing people better, working hard, perseverance, working together, self-confidence, and leadership. The presidents, athletic directors, and coaches identified leadership development, a sense of civic responsibility, loyalty, punctuality, team work, cooperation, winning and losing with class and dignity, being competitive, developing individual strengths and skills, getting along with people, obedience, discipline, learning to make independent decisions, adjusting to being on their own, and maturity as virtues learned from athletics.

In the words of one athlete:

As much as we have to be physically in shape…we definitely also need an attitude which enhances our performance. This…(is)…an inner attitude of confidence in your ability, determination to see what you can do, and delight in what may be possible. The positive vibes that surround a person with an attitude like this can spread (Depew1 , 1999).

The NFHS (2003) reported that sport promotes citizenship and sportsmanship by instilling a sense of pride in community, teaching lessons of teamwork and self-discipline, and facilitating the physical and emotional development of participants.

Bailey, Moulton, and Moulton (1999) compared athletes and non-athletes concerning levels of self-esteem and approval motivation. A sample of 492 university undergraduates participated in this study; ninety-four were athletes. The study used a multivariate analysis of variance to determine whether there was a significant difference between athletes and non-athletes on the variables of self-esteem and approval motivation. Athletes had significantly higher levels of self-esteem than non-athletes. There was also a statistically significant difference on approval motivation. Thus, athletes are “more likely to view themselves positively…and are less likely to engage in approval seeking behavior than non-athletes” (Bailey, Moulton, & Moulton, 1999).

The ability of physical exercise to eliminate anxiety in university youth was investigated by Akandere and Tekin (2002). The sample was comprised of 311 students from Konya Selcuk University of Turkey who had never been involved in physical exercise. A sub-sample of sixty students who had the highest anxiety scores was split in half, so that thirty became the experimental group (which participated in organized physical activity) and the other thirty became the control group. Participation in physical exercise and physical activities decreased the anxiety level of both sexes.

Basking in Reflected Glory

Athletic activities relax the mind and “function as psychological and spiritual havens where disorder and moral ambiguities are resolved and managed through communal sport ritual practices and traditions” (Yiannakis et al., 2003, p.5). One of the perceived impacts lies in a concept called ‘Basking in Reflected Glory’ (BIRG). In Yiannakis et al.’s study, a majority of the respondents reported feeling ‘really good’ when their teams won and feeling ‘really bad’ when their teams lost. However, the relationship between sport-induced mood states, social identity, empowerment, and pro-social behavior is not fully understood and may require further inquiry.

One of the most popular studies on ‘BIRG’ was done by Cialdini et al. (1976)2. College students were found to be more likely to use the pronoun ‘we’ and to wear clothing that identified with their schools after a successful athletic weekend than during times when they had drawn or lost. Cialdini posited that people had a predisposition to associate with positive outcomes and make them their own. When one is ‘BIRG’, the person on the receiving end would not have done anything to bring the team’s success. Theirs is just to bask in unearned grandeur. When one’s team does well, it results in feelings of happiness, well-being, and collective euphoria. It has also been suggested that ‘BIRG’ improves mood in both individuals and communities.

On the flip side of the concept of ‘BIRG’ is ‘Cutting-Off Reflected Failure’ (CORF). The main ‘CORF’ strategy is to minimize the association between oneself and the losing team via several means, including by refusing to attend the teams’ matches’ and using terms such as ‘they’ rather than ‘we’. ‘CORF’ can be said to have somewhat positive results. The pessimism that precedes crucial matches can have the positive impact of uniting fans in the face of the possibility that it can all go wrong. Such an acceptance of a possible negative outcome can have the effect of protecting fans against disappointment as a result of failure. Having a shared moan can be a way of bonding3.

Reputation and Institutional Image

The reputation of an academic institution is closely tied to its sports programs (Cigliano, 2006; Pulsinelli et al, 1989). Thrilling performances by teams score points for the institution. High ranking sporting colleges are also ranked high in the academic arena.

The majority of respondents from Cigliano’s (2006) study mentioned a variety of values of publicity that athletic programs brought to the colleges, including a sense of excitement, activity, focus, free advertising, media coverage, service area communication, recruitment enhancement, and identity for local support to the institutions. The institutional image generated was said to be very positive. Good coverage amounted to free advertising. One of the presidents commented that:

Whether it is right or wrong, many people out in the community do not see anything in your college other than athletics. I mean, you have a certain constituent group out there that will even evaluate your college on how your athletic program is and people read about athletics in the paper. (Cigliano, p62).

In the study, athletic directors noted that visibility of their colleges was due more to athletics than any other department. They pointed out that institutional recognition is a function of the athletics program.

In a 2004 study, Frank mentioned the effect that spending on big time sports has on a university’s name recognition. Because these institutions are constantly making headlines in the public media, their names become more familiar to prospective students than those which are not publicized. This is likely to influence them in the college decision-making process. In such instances, “a big-time athletic program serves much like a national advertising campaign” (Frank, p15).

While athletes are students, they are also considered role models by their fans. People identify with role models on the sports field (Yiannakis et al., 2003). James Sheridan, a cross country athlete at Kenyon College, said, “athletes represent (their institutions) across the country and the type of attitude (they) project reflects on (the) entire learning institution” (Depew, 1999).

Enrollment

Athletics have a positive effect on enrollment. Pulsinelli, Borland, & Goff (1989) postulated that in order for sporting teams to be self financing, athletic teams would have to ‘attract’ a certain number of non-athletic students to the university. Enrollment data for the years 1960 to 1988 were analyzed with winning percentages for football and basketball. Overall, high sporting performance was associated with increased enrollment. This study alluded to the fact that recruiting high profile athletes might increase enrollment because of the indirect ‘attracting influence’ exerted on non-athlete aspiring students. When choosing among schools that offer athletic programs, non athletes prefer schools that have winning records to those that do not.

An impact study of Nichols State University (NSU) by Coats and Cox (2004), found that athletics have an effect on enrollment apart from the economic impact. Nicholls State’s athletic programs directly supported 239 student athletes. It was estimated that these student athletes drew an additional forty-three friends or relatives to NSU. Furthermore, of the 105 members of the marching band, approximately a third would have enrolled elsewhere were it not for the existence of the athletics program. Thus, the NSU athletics and associated programs were directly responsible for attracting 322 students to NSU. These students, in turn, supported approximately fourteen faculty positions.

Toma and Cross (1996) examined undergraduate admissions applications for institutions that won the NCAA Division I-A national football championship and those that won the NCAA men’s basketball tournament for the years 1979 through 1992. Increases were recorded in undergraduate admissions applications in years following a championship season. Fourteen out of sixteen schools that won or shared championships in football recorded increases in the number of applications. In basketball, ten out of thirteen schools recorded increases in applications following the NCAA Tournament championship.

Frank (2004) analyzed the effects of successful athletic programs on soliciting additional applications and donations by alumni and others. He postulated that universities continue to expand expenditures when they may fail to cover direct costs because the athletic programs may generate indirect benefits in other domains of sufficient value to make up the shortfall. The study stated that, “If students are indeed more likely to apply to an institution with a successful athletic program…such schools will be more selective than others on…the average SAT scores of entering freshmen.” McCormick and Tinsley (1987) validated this by asserting that freshmen entering a school would have an average SAT score about thirty-three points higher than it would if it did not have a big-time athletic program. They estimated a multiple regression in which the average SAT score was dependent on several variables, including whether the school had a thriving athletics program. Their data came from about 150 schools for the year 1971, sixty-three of which had big time athletic programs.

The opportunity to participate in athletics is a primary consideration for students (Cigliano, 2006). One community college president stated that the athletic program attracted between eighty to one-hundred students who would not be attending college if the athletic program were not available for them. Another said that sports had a significant impact on enrollment because of the influence athletes had in attracting girlfriends, friends, and peers.

Academic Performance

Student athletes in Colorado were shown to have ‘significantly higher’ grade-point averages than their non-sporting counterparts (NHFS, 2003). Those in Jefferson County high schools were also shown to have higher grade-point averages than their non-sporting peers. The latter school district has matched the academic success of its students with success on the playing field (NHFS, 2003).

Schildnecht (2002) quoted studies by the North Carolina High School Athletic Association, the Colorado Department of Education, and the American College testing services to show that students who participated in sports performed better academically. Student athletes were also found to be more likely to graduate than their non-athletic counterparts.

In one study, which goes against the idea of athletics having a positive relationship with graduation rates, Mangold, Bean, and Adams (2003) explored the impact that athletic programs have on institutional graduation rates. Data on graduation rates for ninety-seven universities competing in NCAA Division IA basketball and football were regressed on several predictors. The results of the study did not support the hypothesis that colleges with successful sports programs would have higher graduation rates for students in general. On smaller campuses, involvement in a successful sports program was suggested to conflict with academic goals. This study provides an example of the post hoc fallacy. There’s probably some third variable that explains this negative relationship.

Lucas and Lovaglia (2002) found that non athletic scholars anticipated higher benefits from academic success than athletes. Their study, for which the sample was 135 students (of which thirty-three were athletes), sought to measure the perceptions of student athletes and non athletes regarding cost, benefit, and motivation towards academic success. They reported that student athletes had a lower motivation to perform academically than non athletes. This does not, however, necessarily support the notion that athletes struggle academically as compared to non athletes, as the authors suggested.

A study was done by Meier, Robinson, Polinard, and Wrinkle (2000) to see if pursuit of athletic goals had a negative impact on academic interests of universities as reflected by scores on the SAT and ACT. The data for the analysis came from Texas school districts for the years 1997-1998. Athletic budgets were found to have no relationship with school attendance. However, the study concluded that athletic budgets had a significant negative relationship with academic performance, although the statistical significance of the variables is unknown. The study acknowledges that there are positive benefits at the individual level. Whatever these impacts may be, it is tempting to suggest that these individual benefits, across the district, could collectively override the negative results of athletics across academic institutions.

Donations

Having reviewed literature pertaining to alumni donations, Frank (2004) concluded that there is evidence that links athletic success to alumni giving. Rhoads and Gerking (2000) also analyzed the role of success in intercollegiate football and basketball in attracting donations to universities from alumni and other sources. Results from regression analysis of panel data from eighty-seven universities showed that, year to year, changes in athletic success had a positive impact on alumni giving. Other donors were not as responsive. Longstanding athletic traditions were shown to attract charitable donations.

Clotfelter cited participation in extracurricular activities and athletics as one of the factors that affected alumni giving (2001). The study utilized a data set of graduates from fourteen private institutions and sought to establish factors associated with alumni donations. The data covered cohorts of individuals who entered the institutions in the fall of 1951, 1976, and 1989. The findings showed that over half of all donations were given by only 1% of all alumni, most of whom contribute annually.

In a 2000 study of 2,822 Vanderbilt University graduates, Dugan, Mullin, and Siegfried investigated alumni giving behavior during the eight years following their graduation. A probit model and a regression were run on the data of givers and non givers. Participation in athletics was found to generate a stronger sense of attachment to the university through group membership, a factor which would have a positive effect on giving. In addition, former athletes receive solicitations from special clubs of former athletes apart from the usual appeal for alumni contributions. For that reason, they are expected to contribute more than other graduates. Students who were members of athletic teams responded more favorably to requests for donations after graduation.

A Chance to Continue in Sport and Education

The awarding of scholarships to athletes affords the chance to further academic interests (Schildnecht, 2002). Athletic directors in Cigliano’s (2006) study expressed that athletics, “provides education for a group of people who might not be able to have an education.” Dropping athletic programs from state universities and community colleges would have the undesirable effect of removing opportunities for many student-athletes to follow their career goals and obtain an education while pursuing future success in athletics. For most, this will be the peak time of their sporting careers. Few venture into professional sports after college.

Negative Effects

A few issues can be raised concerning the negative effects of participation in college sports. Athletics consume time. Often, the athlete has to cope with the stress of attending to sporting obligations while fulfilling academic requirements. They have to submit assignments at the same time as every other student. For those who are not on scholarship, their families have to bear the increased burden of giving them pocket money, since they cannot manage jobs to supplement their incomes.

Stieber (1991) mentions the presence of a black market for athletes. In this situation, a supply and demand for cheaters exists coordinated by national sports bodies. The student athlete is generally discriminated against. The market for athletes is not a free market. It is, in reality, a monopoly. The buying cartel “exploits by eliminating the bidding process among its membership” (Stieber, 1991, p446). The resulting wage is lower for the athlete than what would be obtained in an uncontrolled market. The authors of this paper believe that Stieber’s argument would only hold for the very top tier of institutions, which have major revenue streams associated with football and basketball. For the other non-football and basketball athletes in those institutions and for the athletes in the rest of higher education, a full or partial scholarship may be more than the free market would generate.

Colleges have difficulty recruiting students who are good athletes and academically talented. Cigliano (2006) mentioned an apparent lack of preparation for college work for some of the student-athletes. However, this applied for the rest of the student body as well. Thus, it is not specific to student athletes.

Yiannakis et al. (2003) stated that sports were perceived to increase pollution by 62% of the respondents. Also, crime, gambling, alcohol abuse, and other illegal activities were viewed as increasing by up to 45%. Vandalism, assaults, and drug abuse were also feared to be increasing. There is a need, however, to establish the extent to which particular sports programs have a negative impact on a particular environmental setting.

Conclusions:

Athletics are beneficial to student athletes, to universities, and to society at large. Research points almost incontrovertibly towards the advantages associated with intercollegiate sports. National bodies responsible for sports are generally pleased with the results that athletics yield and would not support plans to reduce support for sports. However, athletes have to work under stressful conditions because of tight schedules and the demanding nature of their work. In some cases, student athletes are exploited by unscrupulous individuals and sports organizations. Ultimately, though, the benefits of athletics outweigh the disadvantages, albeit they are difficult to quantify.

Footnotes:

1 Gelsey Lynn, a cross country runner, as quoted by Depew, R (1999).

2 As cited by Posten, M. (1998).

3 The Mental Health Foundation: Football and Mental Health (n.d)

References:

Akandere, M. and Tekin A. (2002). The effect of physical exercise on anxiety: The Sport Journal Volume 5, Number 2.

Athletic policy manual of Duke University (2003). Retrieved May 18, 2006 from

Click to access Athletic%20Policy%20Manual.pdf

Bailey, K., Moulton, M., & Moulton, P. (1999). Athletics as a predictor of
self-esteem and approval motivation: The Sport Journal Volume 2, Number 2.

Chapin (2002). Identifying the real costs and benefits of sports facilities. Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Working Paper.

Cigliano, L. M. (2006). A perceptual study of the impact of athletic programs in selected community colleges in the State of Tennessee: PhD Dissertation, East Tennessee State University.

Clotfelter, C. T. (1999). Who are the alumni donors? Giving by two generations of alumni from selective colleges. Nonprofit Management and Leadership. Vol 12(2). Pages 119-138

Coats, R. M., and Cox, K. C., (April 14, 2004). Economic impact of NSU athletics Retrieved May 29, 2006 from http://www.slec.org/uploads/EconomicImpact.pdf

Depew, R. (1999). Kenyon athletes define “Role Models” in their own words. Vol. 1(2). Retrieved June 12, 2006 from http://www2.kenyon.edu/orgs/Ksai/features/features11992.htm#sheridan

Dugan, K. Mullin, C. H. & Siegfried J. J. (2000). Undergraduate financial aid and subsequent giving behavior: Williams Project on the Economics of Higher Education. Discussion Paper No. 57. Retrieved June 15, 2006 from
http://opus.zbw-kiel.de/volltexte/2005/3672/pdf/DP-57.pdf

The Mental Health Foundation: Football and mental health (n.d) Retrieved June 23, 2006 from http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/page.cfm?pageurl=football.cfm

Frank, R. H. (2004). Challenging the myth: A review of the links among college athletic success, student quality, and donations: Prepared for the Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics.

Gerking, S., & Rhoads, T. A. (2000). Educational contributions, academic quality, and athletic success. Contemporary Economic Policy, 18, 248-254.

Lucas, J. W. and Lovaglia, M. J. (2002). Athletes’ expectations for success in athletics compared to academic competition: The Sport Journal Volume 5, Number 2.

McCormick, R., & Tinsley, M. (1987). Athletics versus academics? Evidence from SAT scores: Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 95: 1103-1116.

Mangold, William D. (2003). The impact of intercollegiate athletics on graduation rates among major NCAA Division I universities: Implications for college persistence theory and practice. The Journal of Higher Education Vol.74( 5), pp. 540-562. The Ohio State University Press.

Meier, K. J., Robinson, S., Polinard, J. L., & Wrinkle R. D. (2000). A question of priorities: Athletic budgets and academic performance. The Texas Educational Excellence Project.

National Federation of High Schools Association (NFHS), (2003). Survey resources: The case for high school activities. Retrieved September 3, 2005 from http://www.nfhs.org/scriptcontent/Va_custom/vimdisplays/contentpagedisplay.cfm?content_ID=163

Posten, M. (1998). Basking in glory and cutting off failure. Retrieved March 14, 2006 from http://www.units.muohio.edu/psybersite/fans/bc.shtml

Pulsinelli, R.W., Borland, M. V., & Goff, B. L., (1989). Western Kentucky University’s athletic program: Financial burden or boon? Department of Economics, Western Kentucky University.

Rudd, A. & Stoll, S. (2004). What type of character do athletes possess? An empirical examination of college athletes versus college non athletes with the RSBH Value Judgment Inventory: The Sport Journal Volume 7, Number 2.

Schildknecht, J. (2002). Benefits of interscholarstic athletics: schooling in American society. Retrieved September 23, 2005, from
http://filebox.vt.edu/users/jschildk/portfolio/documents/Benefits%20of%20Interscholastic%20Athletics.doc

Stieber, J. (1991). The behavior of the NCAA: a question of ethics. Journal of Business Ethics. Retrieved June 13, 2006 from http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=5&did=572547&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=6&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1130169395&clientId=28564

Toma, J. D. & Cross, M. (1996). Intercollegiate athletics and student college choice: understanding the impact of championship seasons on the quantity and quality of undergraduate applicants. ASHE Annual Meeting Paper. http://www.edrs.com

University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Institutional plan 2004 – 2009. Retrieved May 18, 2006 from http://www.provost.uncc.edu/planning/lrp/institutional.pdf

Yiannakis, A., Douvis, J., & Murdy, J. (2003). Perceived impacts of sport: measuring the impacts of sport: Methodological and policy considerations V6. 174.

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Gender-specific Aspects of Football Expertise: Implications of Two Prospective Observation Studies

Submitted by: Thomas Bobbert, K. Mai, A.F.H. Pfeiffer & J. Spranger

Abstract:

Women and men differ in many aspects of life; among these, their view of sport activities differ considerably. Thus, football (soccer) and the prediction of football results are recurrent sources of stress. Despite this, until now no study has investigated the parameters affecting football expertise in detail. We performed two prospective observation studies in health care employees to investigate whether football expertise, as a parameter combining behavioural, social, and physical aspects of life, is related to gender or anthropometric parameters.

The first study was performed in 2004 during the UEFA European Cup in Portugal. In order to confirm the results of the initial study, a second study was performed during the FIFA World Cup 2006 in Germany. A total of 307 persons were included in the studies. All volunteers had to predict the results of the preliminary round of the respective tournament. An evaluation of the results was done by scores, which were given for correct tendency and correct numbers of goals for each team.

In the first study, a significant difference between male and female participants was found (46.7 ± 1.3 pts, n=41 f: 42.7 ± 1.4 pts, n=42; p = 0.03). This was confirmed in the second study, which had a total of 224 participants. Here, male participants scored significantly higher than female participants (m: 113.9 ± 1.0 pts; f: 108.7 ± 1.3pts; p = 0.004). This difference remained significant in both studies after adjustment for age, profession, and BMI. Despite the fact that the majority of “couch potatoes” are supposed to be outstanding football experts, no relation between BMI and the ability to predict football results was found.

We demonstrated that men perform better in predicting football results than women. This finding was confirmed in a second independent cohort. The consequences of this apparent discrepancy between these gender specific realities on men’s health and the question of whether advertisement and television increasingly favour promoting women as football experts remain to be determined.

Introduction:

Football (soccer) expertise depends on psychological, social, and physiological factors. Despite the apparent impact of this topic on daily life, no study has investigated the parameters affecting football expertise in detail until now. In particular, the question of whether gender is important for individual football expertise is recurrent, due to a lack of valid studies and often irrational debate. Initially, football was dominated on and beside the football field by males. The classical roles were described; the male was the football expert, who rarely played football himself, watched football on TV, and liked to analyse previous games. On the other hand, women tried to avoid watching football games if possible and judged it simply as a sport with twenty-two men running for one ball. Therefore, discussions between males and females about this topic have been often dominated by males.

In recent years, this picture has changed remarkably. Apart from a considerable number of female football players and increasing interest by the media for professional female football, an increasing number of female football supporters have been registered (Member Statistics 2005 German Football Association). This has resulted in changes in the typical behavioural roles in relation to football. Indeed, football discussions often result in quarrels. These discussions are often passionate and lack rational bases. Taking all this together, there is certainly a considerable chauvinism in terms of supposed football expertise. Whether this is justified is completely unclear.

Therefore, we performed the first study to investigate whether football expertise, as a parameter combining behavioural, social, and physical aspects of life, is related to gender. Since men and women are apparently different in aspects potentially influencing football expertise, among them anthropometry and social status, we included these parameters in our multivariate analysis.

Methods:

The first study was performed in 2004 during the UEFA European Cup in Portugal. Participants for this study were recruited by e-mail and personal communication at the Charité-University Medical School Berlin and the German Institute of Human Nutrition. A total of eighty-three volunteers were recruited. Apart from personal information, all participants had to predict the results of the preliminary round. In total, there were twenty-four games.

To confirm the results of the initial study, a second study (study II) was performed during the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. Participants of this study were recruited by Internet and intranet from the Charité-Medical School Berlin. Two hundred and forty-one persons agreed to participate in this study. However, due to missing data, seventeen individuals had to be excluded from final analysis so that a total of 224 persons were ultimately included in this study. All volunteers had to predict the results of the preliminary round of the FIFA World Cup 2006. In total, there were forty-eight games. Baseline characteristics of the volunteers of both studies are presented in Table 1. Additional questions about profession and occupational localization were asked.

Table 1: Baseline characteristics of volunteers in Study I and Study II. P-values for reached points were adjusted for BMI, age, profession, and workplace.

A) Study I: UEFA EC 2004

Males Females p-value
Participants 41 42 –
Points 46.7 ± 1.3 42.7 ± 1.4 0.03
BMI (kg/m2) 23.3 ± 0.7 22.5 ± 0.5 0.34
Age (y) 32.2 ± 1.2 34.5 ± 1.6 0.25

B) Study II: FIFA WC 2006

Males Females p-value
Participants 132 92 –
Points 113.9 ± 1.0 108.7 ± 1.3 0.004
BMI (kg/m2) 23.7 ± 0.2 22.2 ± 0.4 0.001
Age (y) 35.0 ± 0.7 36.6 ± 1.0 0.18

A total of 307 persons were included. An evaluation of the results was done by scores given for correct tendency and correct numbers of goals for each team. For correct tendency, three points were given and for correct number of goals for one team, one point was given. In one game, a maximum of five points could be achieved.

Statistics:

Statistical calculations were performed with SPSS 12.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). All values are given as mean ± standard error. Unpaired T-test was applied if parameters were normally distributed, otherwise Mann-Whitney-U test was used. Multivariate analysis was performed by General Linear Model procedure. Correlations between variables were investigated by Pearsons coefficient of correlation. An alpha-error below 5% was considered to be statistically significant.

Results:

In Study I during the 2004 EC in Portugal, a significant difference between males and females was found in eighty-three individuals (m: 46.7 ± 1.3 pts, f: 42.7 ± 1.4 pts; p = 0.03). This result was confirmed in Study II, which had a total of 224 participants. Here, male participants scored significantly higher than female participants (m: 113.9 ± 1.0 pts; f: 108.7 ± 1.3 pts; p = 0.004).

We next speculated that differences in anthropometry might affect these results, given that “couch-potatoes” might score differently than lean and fit individuals. However, no significant correlation was found between BMI (2006: r = 0.061; p = 0.391; 2004: r = 0.001; p = 0.991) and football expertise (Figure 1) in either study. Correspondingly, the gender specific difference of football expertise remained significant in both studies after adjustment for age and BMI.

Figure 1: Males show higher football expertise compared to female participants in the studies. Results were adjusted for age, profession, and BMI.

Figure 1:

a) FIFA WC 2006 b) UEFA EC 2004
Figure 1 a Figure 1 b

While no significant differences between physicians and non-physicians could be observed in Study I, physicians had significantly more points than non-physicians in Study II (P: 114.3 ± 1.3 pts, N.P.: 110 ± 1.1 pts; p = 0.007, figure 2). In the WC 2006 study, a more detailed analysis on the influence of profession was performed. The analysis of working areas showed that neurologists and psychiatrists had the highest levels of football expertise, while the lowest results were achieved by the members of the departments of pediatrics (internal medicine: 111.1 ± 1.3 pts, neurology/psychiatry: 115.2 ± 2.6 pts, pediatrics: 109.8 ± 4.4 pts, surgical departments: 112.1 ± 3.2 pts, radiology: 112.1 ± 5.2 pts, others: 109.7 ± 2.3 pts, administration: 111.3 ± 3.2 pts). Although apparently of considerable interest, none of these differences reached statistical significance. We additionally tested whether profession or workplace affected the relation between gender and football expertise. Although profession had a significant influence in Study II (p = 0.03), the gender-specific difference remained significant in both cohorts.

Subsequently, the relation between professional experience and football experience was tested in physicians. Although senior registrars had significantly more points than all other groups, especially the directors of the clinics (directors: 111.5 ± 9.7 pts, senior registrars: 118.6 ± 2.6 pts, SHO: 113.0 ± 1.5 pts, care staff: 109.3 ± 2.3 pts, scientist: 110.6 ± 1.6 pts, administration: 108.8 ± 3.2 pts, technicians: 108.9 ± 3.3 pts, students: 113.8 ± 2.8 pts), these differences were not statistically significant.

Discussion:

We demonstrate that men predict football (soccer) results more accurately than women. Thus, the widespread chauvinism in terms of football expertise appears to be partially justified. However, it is important to note that gender accounts for only about 5% of the variability of football expertise. Thus, additional, not-yet identified factors are apparently predominantly responsible for the individual football expertise.

Differences in health care between genders were recently acknowledged as important neglected points; these are part of the ongoing competition between men and women (1). The gender confrontation can also be found in the field of sports, which is not exclusive to the sport itself but includes parasportive activities (2). Football is among the most discussed topics, especially during globally communicated events like the recent FIFA World Cup (3;4). The classical role, which is also often presented by the media, characterises men as football experts, while women are neglected in that context. In recent years, this picture has changed considerably. Women are increasingly recognised as a potential focus of advertisement in the environment of sport events. Consequently, more and more women are presented as experts, i.e. in television broadcasts, which clearly challanges the classical role of the man being the football expert.

Our results indicate that in the general population, men are still better qualified to predict football results than women. Thus, any overemphasis with respect to women in that context is in contrast to the existing reality. The health consequences of such undeserved discrimination are unclear, but may finally result in inferiority complexes or aggression in men, which remains to be determined. Some points of the study design should be mentioned. The presented data are based on healthcare workers and it is unclear whether they can be transferred to the general population. In addition, the ability to predict football results is unlikely to represent the whole spectrum of football expertise. Another important topic addressed here was the relation between anthropometry and football expertise. Although no direct association with BMI was found, a relation to abdominal obesity cannot be excluded. However, “couch potatoes,” who are likely to perform pretty well in football results prediction, are characterised by abdominal obesity, rather than simply elevated BMI. In addition, only about 20% of the cohorts had a BMI higher than 25 kg/m2. Thus, the study may have been underpowered to address this question sufficiently.

Figure 2: Physicians (P) in Study II (n=224) show a significantly higher football expertise than non-physicians (N.P.). Results are after adjustment for age, sex, and BMI.

Figure 2:

Figure 2

In summary, we demonstrated that men perform better in predicting football results than women. This finding was confirmed in a second independent cohort. The consequences on men’s health due to the apparent discrepancy between gender specific realities and the fact that advertisement and television increasingly favour women as football experts remain to be determined.

References:

Carroll D., S. Ebrahim, K. Tilling, J. Macleod, G.D. Smith. Admissions for myocardial infarction and World Cup football: Database survey. BMJ 2002; 325(7378):1439-1442.

Collin J., R. MacKenzie. The World Cup, sport sponsorship, and health. Lancet 2006; 367(9527):1964-1966.

Doyal L. Sex, gender, and health: The need for a new approach. BMJ 2001; 323(7320):1061-1063.

Tanaka H. The battle of the sexes in sports. Lancet 2002; 360(9326):92.

2016-10-19T10:11:08-05:00March 14th, 2008|Contemporary Sports Issues, Sports Studies and Sports Psychology, Women and Sports|Comments Off on Gender-specific Aspects of Football Expertise: Implications of Two Prospective Observation Studies
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Competitive Balance and Conference Realignment: The Case of Big 12 Football

Submitted by: Martin M. Perline, Ph.D. & G. Clayton Stoldt, Ed.D.

Abstract:

Past research has indicated that an effort to achieve greater competitive balance has been one factor in conference realignments within college athletics. The purpose of this study was to determine if greater levels of competitive balance in football were realized after the Big 8 conference merged with four members of the Southwest Conference. Specifically, comparisons were made between competitive balance levels for the last ten years of the Big 8 with the first ten years of the Big 12. Three measures of competitive balance were employed; in general, the findings indicated that competitive balance in football has improved in the ten years after the merger.

Introduction:

In the area of competitive sports, it is mandatory that the outcome of any game or match contain some degree of uncertainty. If this was not the case, it is believed fans would lose interest (Depken & Wilson, 2006; El Hodiri & Quirk, 1971; Kesenne, 2006; Quirk & Fort, 1992; Sanderson & Siegfried, 2003) and thus there would be significantly lower revenues for the organizations involved, particularly media revenue. Stated somewhat differently, it is of vital importance that for any sports league or conference, there needs to be some degree of competitive balance among the various teams.

Competitive imbalance is often linked to disparate revenues among competing organizations (Kaplan, 2004; Sanderson, 2002). At the professional level, these disparities are commonly linked to variables such as the size of a particular team’s media market or home facility. Organizations serving larger markets and/or having newer facilities may be able to generate more revenue than competitors, and thus secure the most talented teams. Likewise, at the collegiate level institutions may enjoy competitive advantages as a result of revenues generated from larger fan bases and better facilities. While those monies may not be passed to student-athletes in the form of salaries, high-revenue programs arguably enjoy significant recruiting advantages because they can invest in new or improved facilities and other program enhancements.

At the professional level, a variety of tactics are commonly employed to enhance competitive balance (Sanderson & Siegfried, 2003). They include salary caps, luxury taxes, revenue sharing, and draft orders favoring those teams that enjoyed the least success the previous season. At the college level, measures such as scholarship limits and prohibitions against extra benefits for student-athletes have attempted to promote competitive balance (Rhoads, 2004). These regulations are commonly enforced by a national governing body (e.g., NCAA, NAIA). However, college athletic conferences also play roles in promoting competitive balance. In particular, Rhoads (2004) has argued the conference realignments are at least partially driven by competitive disparity among institutions. Because of the large gate and television revenues that are often at stake, particularly in football and men’s basketball, efforts to maintain a certain degree of competitive balance in these sports would serve as an incentive to bring about churning within, and mergers between, conferences (Rhoads, 2004).

The purpose of this paper is to attempt to measure the change in competitive balance as a conference changes its membership. Does this bring about the desired increase in competitive balance? In order to shed light on this question, we surveyed the changes in competitive balance as the Big 8 Conference merged with four members of the Southwest Conference to become the Big 12.

Since previous research has suggested no increase in competitive balance in men’s basketball as conferences have gone through change (Rhoads, 2004; Perline & Stoldt, in press), we have chosen to test the hypothesis that attempts to increase competitive balance in football are major reasons for conference realignment (Rhoads, 2004; Fort & Quirk, 1999; Quirk, 2004). More specifically, we compared levels of competitive balance in football in the ten years before the merger with the ten years after. Although the Big 12 separated football into two divisions, we chose to use the overall conference standings for our analysis. This seemed most appropriate, since the Big 8 was not so divided, and teams in each division of the Big 12 played three of their eight conference games with teams in the opposite division.

The Big 12 Conference

The Big 12 is a NCAA Division I-A level conference founded in 1995 (Big 12, 2006). Its membership includes Baylor University, the University of Colorado, Iowa State University, the University of Kansas, Kansas State University, the University of Missouri, the University of Nebraska, the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University, the University of Texas, Texas A&M University, and Texas Tech University.

Each institution in the conference was formerly a member of either the now-defunct Big 8 or Southwest conferences. Changing dynamics in the collegiate athletics marketplace, such as other conferences churning members and new agreements for television coverage, provided an impetus for the formation of the Big 12 (Michaelis, 1996; Thompson, 2000). The new conference included each member of the Big 8 and four institutions from the Southwest Conference. Texas and Texas A&M were, arguably, the flagship programs in the Southwest Conference, so their selection was not surprising. The decision to include Baylor and Texas
Tech was more controversial because those institutions were from smaller markets than the four other members of the Southwest Conference that were not selected. However, both institutions had alumni in key offices within the Texas state government at the time of the merger, and the political influence of those state officials impacted Baylor’s and Texas Tech’s selection (Thompson, 2000; Waldman, 1995). The resultant geographic market of the new conference includes 42 million people and 18 million households with television — roughly 16% of the nation’s total (Big 12, 2006; Michaelis, 1996; Thompson, 2000; Waldman, 1995).

The conference is separated into two divisions for football. The North Division features Colorado, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, and Nebraska. The South Division is comprised of Baylor, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech. Each year, each school plays one game against its divisional opponents and three games against teams from the other division. A rotation system is used to select which three “other division” opponents a team will face in a given system. Over four years, each team will play every team from the other division twice — once at home, once away. All conference games count toward the division standings, and the two division winners meet in a conference championship game each year. The winner of that championship game receives an automatic bid to participate in the Bowl Championship Series (BCS).

Big 12 football teams have enjoyed considerable success at the national level. The conference has placed a team in the BCS national championship game five times, more than any other conference (Big 12, 2006). Further, three teams have won national championships since the conference was founded: Nebraska in 1997, Oklahoma in 2000, and Texas in 2005.

Measuring Competitive Balance:

Several methods have commonly been used to measure competitive balance. The most appropriate of these methods often depends on what the researcher is attempting to measure. Methods most appropriate for measuring competitive balance within a given season may be different from those used to measure competitive balance between seasons (Leeds & VonAllmen, 2005). Since different concepts are being measured, there is no reason to assume the various methods will reach the same conclusions about degree of competitive balance. Indeed, if it is argued that competitive balance is necessary to keep fans interested and thus revenues maximized, it could be argued that no particular method can address theoretical optimal balance, i.e., what the fans who buy tickets and watch television believe is most appropriate. One could even argue that overall conference revenue could be maximized if the teams in the largest markets, with the largest fan base, won most often. Given these caveats, efforts have been made to measure competitive balance. In addressing our task, we rely on such methods.

Three of the most commonly employed measures are:

  • the standard deviations of winning percentages of the various teams in the conference or league
  • the Hirfindahl-Hirschman Index to measure the number of teams that achieve championship status over a given period of time
  • the range of winning percentages

Standard Deviation of Winning Percentages

The method probably used most often to measure competitive balance within a conference in a given season is the standard deviation of winning percentages. Since there will, outside of a tie, always be one winner and one loser for each game, the average winning percentage for the conference will always be .500.

In order to gain insight into competitive balance, we need to measure the dispersion of winning percentages around this average. To do this, we can measure the standard deviation. This statistic measures the average distance that observations lie from the mean of the observations in the data set. The formula for the standard deviation is:

σ = (√(Σ(WPCT – .500)2)) / N

The larger the standard deviation, the greater the dispersion of winning percentages around the mean, thus the less the competitive balance. (If all teams have winning percentages of .500, there would be a standard deviation of zero and there would be perfect competitive balance.)

Using the actual standard deviation in our case presents a potential problem. This occurs because, all things being equal, there is a likelihood that the larger the number of conference games played, the more likely there will be less deviation of winning percentages, since various lucky breaks, injuries, etc. will, over time, even out. Since the number of league games played in the Big 8 was seven and the number of league games played in the Big 12 was eight, there is a need to adjust for these differences. This adjustment entails finding the ideal competitive balance in which each team has a 50% chance of winning each game. This ideal can be measured as:

σ = 0.5 /√ N

where .5 indicates the .5 probability of winning, and n is the number of games played by each team in the season.

In the Big 8, the ideal standard deviation ratio would be 0.5 / √ 7 = 0.1890 and for the Big 12 would be 0.5 / √ 8 = 0.1768.

To measure the competitive balance within a given season, we find the ratio of the actual standard deviation to the ideal standard deviation.

R = σA / σI

The closer the measure is to one, the more competitive balance there is.

Championship Imbalance

While using the standard deviation as a measure of competitive balance provides a good picture of the variation within a given season, it does not indicate whether the same teams win every season, or if there is considerable turnover among the winners i.e., whether there is between-season variation.

Therefore, another method economists have used to measure imbalance is the Hirfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI), which was originally used to measure concentration among firms within an industry (Leeds & von Allmen, 2005). Whereas the standard deviation was used to measure percentage winning imbalance, the HHI is used to measure championship imbalance — how the championship is spread amongst the various teams. Using this method, the greater the number of teams which achieve championship status over a specific time period, the greater the competitive balance. The HHI can be calculated by measuring the number of times each team won the championship, squaring that number, adding the numbers together, and dividing by the number of years under consideration. Using this measure, it can be concluded that the lower the HHI, the more competitive balance among the teams.

Range of Winning Percentage Imbalance

Although the standard deviation of winning percentages can tell us about variation around the mean, it does not specifically reveal if the same teams win or lose from season to season. Likewise, whereas the HHI gives us some perspective on the number of teams who win the championship over a period of time, it does not tell us what is happening to the other teams in the conference. It is quite possible that a few teams could always finish first, but that the other teams could be moving up or down in the standings from one year to another.

One way of gaining insight into the movement in the standings of all teams over time is to get the mean percentage wins for each team over a specific period. The closer each team is to .500, the greater the competitive balance over this period. If several teams had very high winning percentages and others had very low winning percentages, it would suggest that there was not strong competitive balance over time, because the same teams would be winning losing, year after year.

Results:

We employed each of the three measures of competitive balance in our analysis of football results for the Big 8 and Big 12 Conferences. Findings are offered in the following sections.

Standard Deviation of Winning Percentages

Source: Information provided by Big 12 Conference office.

Table 1: Winning Percentages at the Big 8 Conference
Year MO KU OU KSU NU ISU OSU CU
1986 .286 .000 1.000 .143 .714 .428 .571 .857
1987 .428 .071 1.000 .071 .857 .286 .714 .571
1988 .286 .143 .857 .000 1.000 .428 .714 .571
1989 .143 .286 .714 .000 .857 .571 .428 1.000
1990 .286 .357 .714 .286 .714 .357 .286 1.000
1991 .143 .428 .714 .571 .928 .214 .071 .928
1992 .286 .571 .571 .286 .857 .286 .357 .786
1993 .286 .428 .571 .643 1.000 .286 .000 .786
1994 .286 .428 .571 .714 1.000 .071 .071 .857
1995 .143 .714 .286 .714 1.000 .143 .286 .714
Mean .257 .343 .700 .343 .893 .307 .350 .807 .500

 

Source: 2005 Big 12 Football Media Guide contained data for 1996-2004. Big 12 Website contained data for 2005.

Table 2: Winning Percentages at the Big 12 Conference
Year KU CU UT ISU TTU OU NU OSU BU MU TAMU KSU
1996 .250 .875 .750 .125 .625 .375 1.000 .250 .125 .375 .500 .750
1997 .375 .375 .250 .125 .625 .250 1.000 .625 .125 .625 .750 .875
1998 .125 .500 .750 .125 .500 .375 .625 .375 .125 .625 .875 1.000
1999 .375 .625 .750 .125 .625 .625 .875 .375 .000 .125 .625 .875
2000 .250 .375 .875 .625 .375 1.000 .750 .125 .000 .250 .625 .750
2001 .125 .875 .875 .500 .500 .750 .875 .250 .000 .375 .500 .375
2002 .000 .875 .750 .500 .625 .750 .375 .625 .125 .250 .375 .750
2003 .375 .375 .875 .000 .500 1.000 .625 .625 .125 .500 .250 .750
2004 .250 .500 .875 .500 .625 1.000 .375 .500 .125 .375 .625 .250
2005 .375 .625 1.000 .500 .750 .750 .500 .125 .250 .500 .375 .250
Mean .250 .600 .775 .313 .575 .688 .700 .388 .100 .400 .550 .663 .500

Tables 1 and 2 display the annual winning percentages for the football teams in the Big 8 and Big 12 Conferences, respectively. Tables 3 and 4 display the annual standard deviations, the standard deviation ratios, and the means for the ten years of data in the Big 8 and Big 12 conferences.

Source: Authors’ calculations according to formulas in text from data in Table 1.

Table 3: Standard Deviations and Standard Deviation Ratios of Winning Percentage Imbalance in Big 8 Conference
Year Standard
Deviation		 Standard
Deviation Ratio
1986 .3498 1.851
1987 .3498 1.851
1988 .3498 1.851
1989 .3498 1.851
1990 .2725 1.442
1991 .3415 1.807
1992 .2321 1.228
1993 .3171 1.678
1994 .3479 1.841
1995 .3238 1.731
Mean .3234 1.711

 

Source: Authors’ calculations according to formulas in text from data in Table 2.

Table 4: Standard Deviations and Standard Deviation Ratios of Winning Percentage Imbalance in Big 12 Conference
Year Standard
Deviation		 Standard
Deviation Ratio
1996 .2968 1.679
1997 .2919 1.651
1998 .2919 1.651
1999 .2968 1.679
2000 .3153 1.783
2001 .2968 1.679
2002 .2770 1.567
2003 .2968 1.679
2004 .2556 1.446
2005 .2500 1.414
Mean .2869 1.623

The data indicate that overall competitive balance increased with the merger of the Big 8 into the Big 12. After adjusting, the mean of the standard deviation ratio was 1.711 for the Big 8 (see Table 3 – mean standard deviation ratio) and 1.623 (see Table 4 – mean standard deviation ratio) for the Big 12. This was a difference of 5.4%.

If we eliminate the lowest standard deviation ratio for the Big 8 – 1.228 – which would appear to be an outlier as it was well below the mean, the mean for the Big 8 would rise to 1.767, which would raise the percentage differential between the Big 8 and Big 12 to 8.9%.

Championship Imbalance

Using the HHI to measure competitive balance in the Big 8, we find that over the ten-year period, three teams achieved a first place finish: Nebraska 6, Oklahoma 2, and Colorado 2. If we give one point for each first place finish squared, we find:

HHI= 62 + 22 + 22 = 44/10= 4.4

Since the Big 12 is divided into two divisions, the first place finishers in each division play each other to determine the championship. We find that over the ten-year period, six different teams won the championship: Oklahoma 3, Texas 2, Nebraska 2, Colorado 1, Texas A&M 1, and Kansas State 1. Applying the HHI to this data, we find:

HHI= 32 + 22 + 22 + 12 + 12 + 12 = 20/10= 2

Here, the numbers are particularly revealing. We see twice as many institutions won the championship in the first ten years of the Big 12 than had won in the previous ten years with the Big 8. These results, though, need be mitigated by the fact that one would expect there to be more difference in teams achieving the championship with twelve competitors than with eight. Nevertheless, in the case of the Big 8, three teams out of a possible eight (37.5%) won the championship, whereas in the case of the Big 12, six out of a possible twelve teams won the championship (50%). While this does lessen the difference, the Big 12 still remains considerably more competitively balanced.

Range of Winning Percentage Imbalance

If we arbitrarily set .500 plus or minus .100 as a range, which would suggest a high degree of competitive balance over the ten-year period, we find significantly more competitive balance in the Big 12 than in the Big 8.

The mean winning percentages displayed for each team in Table 1 (Big 8) suggest that when using such an approach, no teams fell within this .400-.600 range. There were obvious winners and losers, but not many in the middle. (Nebraska, Colorado, and Oklahoma were the winners, and the remaining five institutions were the losers.)

On the other hand, the mean winning percentages displayed for each team in Table 2 (Big 12) indicates that four institutions (33% of the league total) – Colorado, Missouri, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech – fell within the specified range. Texas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Kansas State exceeded the range. Oklahoma State, Iowa State, Kansas, and Baylor fell below the range, with the latter two institutions never having a winning season.

When looking at the range between the top and bottom winning percentages, we find that in the Big 8 the range is .636 (Nebraska .893 and Missouri .257), whereas it is actually larger for the Big 12 at .675 (Texas .775 and Baylor .100). Baylor has not had a winning season since joining the Big 12, and only once in the ten-year period has it won as many as two conference games. Therefore, if we were to exclude Baylor at an outlier, we find the range drops to .525 (Texas .775, and Kansas .250). This would make the range approximately 20% lower in the Big 12 than in the Big 8.

Conclusions:

Previous research had suggested that one reason for conference realignment was to achieve greater competitive balance in sports among the various member institutions (Rhoads, 2004). This appeared to be particularly true in football, one of the very high revenue sports in major athletic conferences. With this in mind, we investigated whether there was an increase in competitive balance in the sport of football after the Big 8 Conference merged with four members of the Southwest Conference to form the Big 12 Conference. The data for this study came from the conference standings in football for the Big 8 for the ten years prior to the merger and the standings for the Big 12 ten years subsequent to the merger.

Using the standard deviation to measure the winning percentage imbalance, and the Hirfindahl-Hirschman Index to measure championship imbalance, we concluded that each of the above measures indicated an increase in competitive balance after the merger. In the case of the range of winning percentages, the results suggested a slightly greater competitive balance for the Big 8, although once the least successful team in the Big 12 was dropped as an outlier, there was considerably more competitive balance in the Big 12. Given the fact that conferences often realign in an attempt to achieve greater competitive balance (Rhoads, 2004), these findings would support the decision to realign.

Achieving greater levels of competitive balance in a single sport is not the only justification for conference realignment. There are numerous ways in which the Big 8-Southwest Conference merger has impacted its member institutions and the overall landscape of college athletics. However, since competitive balance is recognized as being generally appealing to consumers and football is among the conference’s most marketable sports, the implications of these findings must be deemed important if not surprising.

References:

Barfknect, L. (2005, August 28). The Big 12 Conference turns 10: Still lookin’ good. Omaha World-Herald, 12fb.

Big 12. (2006). The Big 12 Conference-Celebrating its 10th season. Carlsbad, CA: CSTV Networks, Inc. Retrieved June 27, 2006 from http://www.big12sports.com/aboutbig12/big12-aboutbig12.html

Big 12. (2006). The Big 12 Conference. Carlsbad, CA: CSTV Networks, Inc. Retrieved June 27, 2006 from http://www.big12sports.com/sports/m-baskbl/big12-m-baskbl-body.html

Depken, C.A. (1999). Free-Agency and the competitiveness of Major League Baseball. Review of Industrial Organization, 14, 205-217.

Depken, C.A., & Wilson, D. (2006). The uncertainty of outcome hypothesis in Division I-A college football. Manuscript submitted for publication.

El Hodiri, M. & Quirk, J. (1971). An economic model of a professional sports league. Journal of Political Economy, 79, 1302-19.

Fort, R., & Quirk, J. (1999). The college football industry (pp. 11-25). In J. Fizel, E. Gustafson, & L. Hadley (Eds.). Sport economics: Current research. Westport, CT: Praeger.

Humpreys, B. (2002). Alternative measures of competitive balance. Journal of Sports Economics, 3, (2), 133-148.

Kaplan, D. (2004, March 29). “Our work just started” on revenue sharing, group says. Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal, 40.

Kesenne, S. (2006). Competitive balance in team sports and the impact of revenue sharing. Journal of Sport Management, 20, 39-51.

Leeds, M. & vonAllmen, P. (2005). The Economics of Sports. Boston: Pearson-Addison Wesley.

Michaelis, V. (1996, June 30). Big time: Big Eight, SWC get the message, The Denver Post, 2D.

Quirk, J. & Fort, R.D. (1992). Pay dirt: The business of professional team sports. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Rhoads, T.A. (2004). Competitive balance and conference realignment in the NCAA. Paper presented at the 74th Annual Meeting of Southern Economic Association, New Orleans, LA.

Sanderson, A. (2002). The many dimensions of competitive balance. Journal of Sport Economics, 3, 204-228.

Sanderson, A.R., & Siegfried, J.J. (2003). Thinking about competitive balance. Unpublished manuscript. Vanderbilt University

Thompson, A. (2000, July 1). No piece of cake: ‘Pandemonium’ prevailed during Big 12’s creation; Planning paid off in the end. The Denver Post, D09.

Waldman, A. (1995). A death in the family. Sport, 86 (6), 78-83.

2016-10-12T14:49:22-05:00March 14th, 2008|Contemporary Sports Issues, Sports Management, Sports Studies and Sports Psychology|Comments Off on Competitive Balance and Conference Realignment: The Case of Big 12 Football
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Incidents of Sexual Harassment in Turkey on Elite Sportswomen

Submitted by: Nevin Gündüz, Hakan Sunay & Mitat Koz

Abstract:

The purpose of this study was to examine incidents of sexual harassment by trainers, administrators, spectators, etc. directed at elite sportswomen from different branches. The 356 sportswomen participants voluntarily took part in this study. They completed a twenty-item questionnaire that had been tested for validity and reliability. The Alfa reliability coefficient was found to be 0.86. The data collected were analyzed through SPSS program and data relations were examined via a chi-square test. The significance level was p<0.05.

The findings of the study revealed that 200 out of 356 sportswomen stated that they had been sexually harassed. The most frequent time of harassment was found to be after games or training, and the most frequently occurring location of harassment was the sports center. The relationship between branch groups, age, educational background, and the sexual harassment was found to have p<0.05 significance. The relationship between years of experience in sports, marital status, the gender of the trainer, and sexual harassment were found to be insignificant (p>0.05). The overall findings of this study show that elite sportswomen from different branches are exposed to sexual harassment. This supports the related literature.

Introduction:

As a form of sex discrimination, sexual harassment has a variety of definitions in different domains. However, none is universally accepted (Brackendridge et al., 2000). In general terms, sexual harassment is defined as unwelcome sexual attempts (Fedai et al., 2001); in sports, it takes the form of slang words, teasing, covert jokes, negative comments on a sportsperson’s body or performance, and unwelcome physical contact. Whether physical or psychological, it is disturbing to the person, and is given without consent (Brackendridge et al., 2000, Charney et al., 1994; Ian, 2000, Kirby et al., 1997; Lackey, 1990). Research on sexual harassment in sports began in the mid-1980s (Brackendridge, 1997) and was commonly defined as rudeness to women by adult men (Brackendridge, 2000 & Seefelt, 1998).

Sexual harassment is a relatively new area of study in our country, but it has been on the agenda in Western countries for a long time. Though the problem has existed in our country, due to social perceptions, attitude differences, and the socialization process it has not been studied in detail. When considering the damage it causes to a person, to a club, and to the sports community, the significance of the situation becomes obvious. Moreover, sexual harassment has potentially negative influences on performance, economical and social position, self-confidence, mood, and physical health (Brackendridge et al., 2000).

The sub-objectives of the research were to determine whether sportspersons experienced sexual harassment or not. If so, the type of harassment, by whom they were exposed to harassment, the place(s) it happened, the psychological and physical damages, and the rate of reactions needed to be considered. In addition, the relationship between the sportsmen’s branch (team and individual), age, educational background, marital status, active years in sports, and conceptualization of sexual harassment were examined.

Methodology:

The Subjects

Three-hundred and fifty-six elite sportswomen from various branches of athletics: weightlifting (eight), football (thirty-six), taekwondo (fifty-two), basketball (twenty-six), swimming (eighteen), handball (seventy-eight), volleyball (forty-two), table tennis (eighteen) gymnastics (twenty-two), and miscellaneous (fifty-six) voluntarily participated in this study. Before the training, in the changing room, sportswomen from team and individual sports were given information about the study and the questionnaire. Completed questionnaires were returned to the researchers in sealed envelopes by the participants or the coaches.

Data Collection Tool

After a detailed study of the related research, a twenty-item questionnaire was prepared and piloted on fifty students from Ankara University, College of Sports to check validity and reliability. The Alfa reliability coefficient was 0.86. Before asking sportswomen of different branches to fill out the questionnaires, they were given the necessary information and the questionnaires were distributed in closed envelopes. These consisted of twenty questions, the first five of which involved personal information (age, sports branch, training age, educational background, marital status), and the rest of which were multiple choice questions about sexual harassment. The focus of these multiple choice questions concerned the frequency of sexual harassment incidents, the harasser, the affective dimension, actions against harassment, and the location of the incidents.

Statistical Analysis

The data were analyzed by use of SPSS (7, 5) program. The descriptive statistics was referred to in order to identify the relation between data via the chi-square test. For the analysis of personal information and other responses, frequency (f), percentage (%), arithmetical mean (x), and standard deviation (SD) were referred to. By use of the chi-square test, the relationship between the sportsperson’s branch (team and individual), age, educational background, marital status, active years in sports, and relation to sexual harassment were examined. Finally, the level of significance was found to be p<0.05.

Findings:

Table 1: Personal Information about Participating Sportswomen
Variables Number Percentage (%) Total
Age <19
>20		 190
166		 53.4
46.6		 356
Educational
Background		 High School
College		 110
246		 69.1
30.9		 356
Marital
Status		 Married
Single		 18
338		 5.1
94.9		 356

Table 1 provides personal information about the elite sportswomen. For age, 53.4% of the participants were under the age of 20 whereas 46.6% were above 20. For education, 69.1% were college graduates while 30. 9% were high school graduates. Finally, the marital status rate was 94: 9% were single and 5.1% were married. The branches of participants are displayed in Table 2.

Table 2: Branch Distribution of Sportswomen
Sports Branch Number Percentage (%)
Athletics 56 15.7
Weightlifting 8 2.2
Football 36 10.1
Taekwondo 52 14.6
Basketball 26 7.3
Swimming 18 5.1
Handball 78 21.9
Volleyball 42 11.8
Table Tennis 18 5.1
Gymnastics 22 6.2
Total 356 100

In addition, it was found that the sportspersons had four to ten years of active sport experience.

4-6 Years11632.7

Table 3: Experience
Duration of
Participation in Sport		 Number Percentage (%)
1-3 Years 26 7.3
7-9 Years 124 34.8
10+ Years 90 25.3
Total 356 100

The results revealed that out of 356 sportswomen, 56.2% declared that they had been exposed to sexual harassment, whereas 43.8% declared the opposite ( see Table 4). The most frequent sexual harassment type was ‘come-ons’ by 26.4%, ‘unwelcome jokes, questions and ‘sexual utterances’ by 25.3%, and ‘unwelcome letters and phone calls’ by 24.2%.

Table 4: Frequency of Exposure to Harassment
Frequency Number Percentage (%)
Yes 200 56.2
No 156 43.8
Total 356 100

In addition, the harassers were identified as ‘spectators’ by 40%, ‘teammates’ by 33.1%, and ‘the trainer’ by 24.8% (see Table 5). As to the frequency of exposure to these kinds of problems, once in a sportswomen’s life was 12.4%, once to three times was 30.9%, four to eight times was 7.3%, five to eight times was 5.1% and continuous was 3.9%. Sexual harassment occured during the following times: 21.3% after games, 19.7% after trainings, 9% before or during games, and 6.7% before games. As a reaction to harassment, 29.8% of the participants stated they ignored the harassment. In addition, 18.5% stated, “I told the harasser not to do it” and 16.9% stated, “I stopped the harasser.”

Table 5: Type and Distribution of Harassment
Types of Harassment Trainer Manager Teammate Spectator Other Total
No % No % No % No % No % No %
Come-ons 16 4,5 16 4,5 24 6,7 34 9,6 4 1,1 94 26,4
Unwelcome Jokes,
Questions or Sexual
Utterances		 18 5,1 18 5,1 30 8,4 22 6,2 2 0,6 90 25,3
Unwelcome Asking Out 14 3,9 14 3,9 28 7,9 26 7,3 4 1,1 86 24,2
Unwelcome Letters or
Phone Calls		 14 3,9 8 2,2 18 5,1 28 7,9 6 1,7 74 20,8
Sexual Exposure of the
Body		 2 0,6 8 2,2 8 2,2 20 5,6 4 1,1 42 11,8
Light Touching 22 6,2 – – 6 1,7 10 2,8 4 1,1 42 11,8
Clearly Touching 2 0,6 2 0,6 4 1,1 2 0,6 2 0,6 12 3,4
Rape – – – – 2 0,6 – – 2 0,6 4 1,1
Total 88 24,8 68 19,1 118 33,1 142 40 28 7,9

As to location, 45.5% of the sportswomen stated that the gym or game field is the place where sexual harassment primarily occurs (Table 6). A high percentage of sportswomen (69.1%) believed that sport apparel does not promote sexual harassment, while 29.2% accepted that there was a relationshp between the two.

Table 6: Locations of Sexual Harassment
Location No. Percentage (%)
Gyms or Game Field 162 45.5
Changing Room 14 3.9
Equipment Room 2 0.6
Other 62 17.6

Whether sexual harassment affects the performances of the sportswomen was a subject of varying opinions. The percentage that answered that it didn’t change performance was 36%, the percentage that felt it created a decrease in performance was 18.5%, and the percentage that felt that it increased performance was 2.2%. The duration of the decrease in the performance was felt by most to last “less than a week”. The most frequent reaction to sexual harassment is ‘anger’ by 20.8 % (see Table 7).

Table 7: Psychological Reactions of Sportswomen after Being Harassed
Reaction No Percentage (%)
Anger 74 20.8
Fear 40 11.2
Desperation 20 5.6
Inferiority and Worry 22 6.2
Depression _ _
Guilt 4 1.1
No Feelings at All 6 1.7
Other 36 9.1

As for the physical/physiological reactions to these kinds of incidents, ‘headache’ was the largest reactant at 37.1 % (see Table 8). The subsequent actions taken by the sportswomen also varied: 53.9% said they “have done nothing”, 1.7% indicated “having seen psychological counselors,” and 1.7% indicated “having taken tranquilizers.’

Table 8: Physical/ Physiological Reactions of Sportswomen after Being Harassed
Physical Reaction No Percentage (%)
Headache 74 20.8
Insomnia 40 11.2
Heartburn 20 5.6
Tiredness 22 6.2
Nausea- Vomiting – –
Dizziness 4 1.1
Irregular Menstruation 6 1.7
Other 36 10.1

The harasser was identified as ‘a friend’ by 37.2%, as ‘family’ by 9.0%, and as “the trainer” by 5.1%. That sexual harassment is a problem was partially agreed to by 52.2% of the participants; 29.8% saw it as a real problem, and 18% did not see it at all as a problem.

On the other hand, the relationship between the sports branches (especially team sport) and sexual harassment was found to be significant (p 0.05). Likewise, for age (especially 20 or above), educational background (especially college graduates) and sexual harassment, the significance level was found to be p 0.05. Nevertheless, the relationship between the duration of experience, martial status, gender of the trainers, and sexual harassment was not significant (p 0.05).

Discussion:

To reach the optimum level of performance, training and game conditions for sportswomen should be secure (Brackendridge et al., 2000). More importantly, the low number of female trainers in our country makes this topic more critical. The research shows that the number of sportswomen and female trainers is much fewer than that of men (Anonymous, 1991). In our study, 84.3% of the women’s trainers were men, whereas 15.7% were women. The studies conducted in the U.S. also supported this rate (Lackey, 1990). The harassers generally turned out to be sportsmen and male trainers. In addition, as the perceptions of men and women differ, “unwelcome behaviors” may be taken to be less problematic by men. As a result, completely unwanted conduct may be considered acceptable by sportsmen (Brackendridge et al, 2000 & Seefelt, 1998). The studies so far states that the trainers are the ones abusing relationships (Brackendridge et al, 2000).

The fact that spectators are the most frequent harassers underscores the fact that the low education level of Turkey may be reflected by the conduct of spectators. In this study, 56.2% of sportswomen declared that they had been harassed, whereas the study conducted on 301 Israeli and American sportswomen by Fedjin et al. showed a harassment rate of 14% (Fedjin et al., 2001). This study defined harassers in the following manner: 40% were spectators, 33.1% were teammates and 24.8% were trainers. The most frequent type of harassment turned out to be ‘come-ons’ at 26.4% followed by ‘unwelcome jokes, questions, and sexual utterances at 25.3%, which are the highest, according to studies in the U.S. (Lackey, 1990).

Sexual harassment may occur once; on the other hand, unwelcome sexual conduct may take place repeatedly (Anonymous, 2000; Brackendridge, et al, 2000). The first study about sexual harassment on women in Turkey concluded that 56.2% of the sportswomen had been subjected to sexual harassment at least once. In many other countries, findings show that every three to four sportswomen experience sexual harassment before adolescence (Brackendridge, 1997; Brackendridge et al., 2000). More than 90% of the victims of harassment are negatively influenced emotionally (Brackendridge et al., 2000; Ian, 2000). This study acknowledged that having been psychologically affected, sportswomen have feelings of anger, fear, weariness, loss of self confidence, and loneliness.

The findings for the physical/physiological effects of harassment were parallel to those of other studies (Brackendridge et al, 2000; Charney et al., 1994). The location of harassment occurs 45.5% of the time at the gym or sports field and 21.3% of the time after a game; Kirby and Graves (1997) argued that sexual harassment doubled during trips for trainings.

Of the participants, 69.1% did not agree on the relationship between sportswear and harassment; 29.2% did. Furthermore, no clear relation was identified in the related research; it was considered simply a risk factor (Brackendridge et al., 2000).

A significant relationship of p 0.05 between the branches (especially team sports), age groups (especially the group of 20 or above), educational background (especially the college group), and sexual harassment was found. Female athletes in team sports are at higher incidences of harassment than in individual sports in Turkey (GSGM 2006). Indeed, it is highly popular to participate in team sports such as volleyball, basketball, and handball among females in Turkey. Therefore, it can be proposed that sexual harassment in team sports in Turkey is increased due to the increased interest of spectators. The study on the health staff found that young nurses are the most frequently harassed group in Turkey (Kisa et al., 1996). Other studies conducted in Turkey displayed these findings: 14% of working women are harassed (Cumhuriyet Newspaper, 2004; Milliyet Newspaper, 2004). This is widely observed in hospitals (Cumhuriyet Newspaper, 2004). Sportswomen, at the beginning of their professional life, get discouraged if subjected to harassment. They tend to leave the sports club. On the contrary, some of the elite sportsmen declared that, independent of the trainers, they succeeded in becoming members of the groups that helped prevent harassment. However, due to their lack of self-confidence, they relate their successes to other people (trainers, managers, etc.). Therefore, we can conclude that instead of coping with harassment, they tend to leave the profession (Brackendridge et al., 2000). The relation between active sports years, marital status, and harassment was found to be insignificant (p 0.05).

Conclusion:

Out of 356 participant sportswomen, 56.2% declared that they had been exposed to sexual harassment while 43.8% did not. The most frequent sexual harassment was stated to be ‘come-ons’ at 26.4% followed by ‘unwelcome jokes, questions and sexual utterances at 25.3%, and ‘unwelcome letters and phone calls’ at 24.2%.

As regards sources of harassment, 40% claimed that spectators, 33.1% teammates, and 24.8% trainers were guilty of harassment. The rate of sexual harassment varied. Of the participants, 12.4%, declared it occurred only once, 30.9% said that it occurred one to three times, 7.3% said that it occurred four to eight times, 5.1% said that it occurred five to eight times, and 3.9% declared continuous harassment.

As to the timing of the harassment, 21.3% stated it happened after the game, 19.7% after the training, 9.0% before/during the training, and 6.7% before the game. Of the participants, 29.8% said, ‘I ignored the act’, 18.5% said, ‘I told that person not to,’ and 16.9% said, ‘I prevented the behavior.’

The most frequently occurring location for harassment, noted by 45.5%, was the gym or the field. Of the participants, 69.1% did not accept the existence of a relationship between the clothing and harassment, while 29.2% did.

When questioned, 36% stated no change in their performances, whereas 18.5% expressed a decrease in performance in the case of harassment. The duration of the decrease was stated by most as ‘less than a week’. The most common psychological reaction to harassment was found to be ‘anger,’ at 20.8%.

The most frequent physical reaction of sportswomen to harassment was headaches (37.1%). Of the participants, 53.9% declared that they did nothing to overcome the reactions, 1.7% acknowledged that they have seen counselors and 1.7% have taken tranquilizers. In addition, 37.2% have reported the incident to a friend, 9.0% to family, and 5.1% to a trainer. Finally, 52.2% accepted the harassment as a partial problem, 29.8% as a larger problem, and 18% as no problem at all.

Recommendations for Further Study:

Sportswomen are exposed to sexual harassment in Turkey. Therefore, the following recommendations should be considered. Information sessions on ‘sexual harassment’ for sportswomen from different branches should be inititated. Practical rules, security guidelines, and other materials should be prepared to increase the security of sportswomen. Sportswomen should enroll in self-defense training. Harassers should be punished with a preventative and appropriate punishment. Working conditions must improve to discourage harassment. Sports managers should take measures to prevent harassment towards sportswomen (eg. escorting sportswomen, making the gym and sport fields safer). Harassed women must be helped to recover and regain their status and self-confidence.

References:

Anonymous (1991). Official paper from the Prime Ministry General Directorate for Youth and
Sports. Ankara.

Anonymous (2000). Official paper from the National Association for Sports and Physical Education (NASPE), 1-5. Sexual Harassment in Athletic Settings. Retrieved April 4, 2005, from http://www.aahperd.org/naspe/naspe

Brackendridge, CH. (1997). Researching sexual abuse in sport. In Clarke G, Humberstone B.
(Eds.) Researching Women Sports. (pp. 126-141). London: Macmillan.

Brackendridge, CH & Cert Ed. (2000) Harassment, sexual abuse and safety of the female athletes. Clinics in Sports Medicine, 19(2), 187-199. April.

Charney, D. A. and Russell, R.C. (1994), An overview of sexual harassment. Am. J. Psychiatry. 151 (1). 10-17.

Cumhuriyet Newspaper (2004). The Nightmare of the working women. pp. 18 December. Fedai, T. & Teke, K. (2000). Sexual harassment: importance in hospital management. Journal of Health and Society. 10(2). 17-21, April.

Fedjin, N. and Hanegby, R. (2001). Gender and Cultural Bias in Perceptions of Sexual Harassment in Sport, International Review for the Sociology, 36 (4), 459-478.

GSGM (2006), Genclik ve Spor Genel Mudurlugu, http://www.gsgm.gov.tr/sayfalar/istatistik/istatistik_index.htm

Ian Holmes (2001). Policy on Harassment. Retrieved April 4, 2005, from http:/www.australiansoccer.com.au/pdfs/fairplay/800-6-Circular%2024-2001.pdf

Kirby, S. & Graves, L. (1997, July). Foul Play: Sexual Harassment in Sports. Paper Presented at the Pre- Olympic Scientific Congress, Dallas, TX.

Kisa, A. & Dziegielewski, F. S. (1996). Sexual harassment of female nurses in a hospital in
Turkey, Health Service Management Research, 9, 243-253.

Lackey, D. (1990), Sexual harassment in sports. Physical Educator, 47(2), 22-26.

Milliyet Newspaper (2004). They are not complaining about harassment. pp. 16 December.

Seefelt, V. (1998). Understanding Sexual Harassment and Abuse of Power in Athletic Settings, YSI home page, 1-4.

Appendix: The Questionnaire

Dear sportsman,

Sexual harassment, though not a new issue in our country, has been on the agenda of Western countries for a long time. In many of the sport branches, the number of female trainers is low, which makes this issue significant.

The purpose of this study is to examine sexual harassment incidents by trainers, administrators, spectators, etc. toward elite sportswomen from different branches. Your responses to this questionnaire will not be used anywhere else. The success of this study depends on your complete and correct answers. I thank you for your help and cooperation.

The Researchers

1. Age?
2. Sport branch?
3. For how many years have you been actively involved in sports?
a- 1-3    b- 4-6    c- 7-9    d- 10+
4. Educational level?
a- High school    b-University    d-Other:_____________
5. Marital status?
a- Married    b-Single    c- Separated/Divorced    d-Widow/er
6. The following is a definition of sexual harassment: intentional or repeatedly unwelcome words or physical contact. The following are considered to be actions of sexual harassment: come-ons, unwelcome jokes, questions and sexual utterances, sexually explicit hand movements and facial gestures, unwelcome invitations out, unwelcome letters and phone calls, sexual exposure of part of the body, a soft touch to the body, a clear touch to the body (eg. touching breasts), and rape.

7. Based on this definition, have you ever experienced sexual harassment?
a-Yes    b-No
8. Please mark the following that apply to your experience.

‘

Trainer Administrator Teammate Spectator Other
Come-ons
Unwelcome jokes, questions and sexual
utterances
Unwelcome asking out
Unwelcome letters and phone calls
Sexually exposing any part of the body
A soft touch to the body
A clear touch to the body
Rape -tendency to rape

9. How many times you have experienced this kind of sexual harassment?
a- once    b- 1-3 times    c- 4-8 times    d- 8-15 times    e- continuously

10. When did you experience sexual harassment?
a-before/during training    b-after training    c-before game    d-after game
11. How did you find solutions when you experienced sexual harassment? (may circle more than one choice).

a-I ignored the act.    b-I took it as teasing.    c-I prevented the behavior.
d- I told that person not to.    e-I reported it to my teammates, trainer and administrators.
f-Other, please write _____________________
12. Where did you experience sexual harassment? (may circle more than one choice)
a- Gym    b-Changing room    c-Equipment room    d-Other (please write) _________________
13. Do you believe that there is a relationship between the uniforms on the field and sexual harassment?
a- Yes    b- No
14. How has your performance changed since the incident?

a- My performance increased.    b- There was no change in my performance.
c- My performance decreased.
15. If your performance decreased, how long did that last? (based on the latest incident).
a-Less than a week    b-1 week- 1 month    c-1 month- 3 months    d-Less than 6 months
16. How did you react to this incident? (You may circle more than one choice.)
a- Anger    b- Fear    c- Desperation    d- Inferiority    e- Depression    f- Guilt    g- No feelings
h-Other reactions (please write)______________________________________.
17. Which of these physical complaints did you have after the incident of sexual harassment? (may circle more than one choice)

a- Headaches    b- Insomnia    c- Heartburn    d- Fatigue    e- Nausea-vomiting    f- Dizziness
g- Irregular menstruation    h-Other:________________________________________
18. To overcome the physical complaints, what have you done?

a-I have changed my eating habits.    b-I have taken tranquilizers.
c-I have had psychological guidance or therapy.    d- No actions taken

19. Whom did you talk to about this sexual harassment incident?

a-My spouse    b-My family    c-My sibling    d-One club administrator    e-My friend    f-My trainer
g-Other:_____________________________________________
20. What is the gender of your trainer:
a- Male    b-Female
21. Do you think sexual harassment is a problem in sports?

a- Yes    b- No    c-Partially

2016-10-12T14:47:06-05:00March 14th, 2008|Contemporary Sports Issues, Sports Coaching, Sports Management, Sports Studies and Sports Psychology, Women and Sports|Comments Off on Incidents of Sexual Harassment in Turkey on Elite Sportswomen
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