ABSTRACT

Emotional abuse and sexual abuse are often co-occurring forms of child maltreatment that can have numerous negative effects on development. This narrative review synthesises research on emotional and sexual abuse of elite child athletes by their coaches to examine the dynamics and consequences of abuse in the elite sport context and to investigate characteristics of this context – in which the coach-athlete relationship is central – that make these athletes especially vulnerable to abuse. This paper contributes to the literature through using a developmental perspective to identify these characteristics, which are the intensity and one-dimensionality of child athletes’ experiences at the elite level. These characteristics are dangerous because they lead to the normalisation of the abuse and isolation of the still-developing athlete. Critical issues related to both emotional and sexual abuse of elite child athletes are also discussed, including internalisation and rationalisation of the abuse, disruption of identity, and dynamics surrounding disclosure.

摘要

情感虐待和性虐待通常是同时发生的虐待儿童形式，会对发育产生许多负面影响。这篇叙述性评论综合了教练对精英儿童运动员的情感和性虐待的研究，以检查精英体育背景下虐待的动态和后果，并调查这种背景的特征——教练-运动员关系是核心——这使得这些运动员特别容易受到虐待。本文通过使用发展的视角来识别这些特征，即精英水平的儿童运动员体验的强度和一维性，从而为文献做出贡献。这些特征是危险的，因为它们导致仍在发育的运动员的虐待和孤立正常化。