Child abuse & sport - What to look out for
Most Australian children participate in some kind of organised sport. As a parent or carer, being able to recognise the signs that your child may have experienced abuse in a sporting context is vital. Children and young people may tell an adult about the abuse occurring (what is known as a disclosure), however more often they will not.
Look out for:
Refusal to attend training - Children may appear belligerent or uncooperative as they may not be able to verbalise what is happening to them at training. Bad behaviour = communication. A persistent refusal to attend training is not typically a sign of laziness but may be a sign that abuse is occurring.
Injuries - Particularly repeated injuries or those that were left untreated or when there are differing versions of how an injury occurred (coach and athlete’s stories do not match up).
Disclosures - These may be subtle: a child may tell you a story of someone else being abused at sport, when they really mean themselves.
Sexual behaviour - For example, seeking inappropriate adult affection, talking about sexual acts or pornography or asking sexualised questions (that are inappropriate to the age of the child).
Disruptive/anxious behaviour - Nightmares/bedwetting/going to bed fully-clothed or extreme attention-seeking behaviour, aggressive behaviour or bullying.
School - A marked dip in school performance, or truancy, or no longer engaging in social relationships with peers (not seeing friends anymore).
Body image distortions - Failure to gain weight or grow at the expected rate for his/her age, a loss of weight or refusal to eat, dieting behaviour, or speaking negatively about their body, i.e., ‘too weak’, ‘too fat’.
Take home message for parents
Children may not to tell you that their sporting environment has become abusive. This is particularly true of elite athletes who are dedicated to their sports, and who may fear being ‘pulled out’ if they disclose to parents and carers what is happening to them. This is why it is important to know the signs. Even with all the safeguards in the world, abusive people will still enter and exist within the sporting environment.
The best thing you can do as a parent to ensure your child is safe at sport is to attend training and competitions; be wary of any sporting organisation that discourages parental presence and involvement. Evidence shows that abuse is far more unlikely to occur when there are direct witnesses. If it is not possible for you to attend training and competition, then consider ‘sharing the load’ and organising a parent roster, where one parent attends each session.