Gender and age variables of bullying in organized sport: Is bullying “grown out of”?

Purpose: The article presents the specificity of bullying in organized sport with regard to sport participants’ gender and age variables. Trends in bullying manifestation through such constituents as antisocial behaviour and aggression in sport, bullying actions in sport, previous experiences and memories of bullying, lack of bullying control are analysed. Methodology: The survey was conducted employing Bullying and Harassment in Sport Questionnaire (BHISQ). A sample of 382 youth amateur athletes (adolescents and young adults), involved in different sports, participated in this study. Written and online surveys and statistical data analysis were chosen. Analyses were made applying Mann-Whitney U test to gender analyses and Kruskal-Wallis H test to three age groups. Findings: Athletes men are more aggressive physically, verbally or non-verbally than women. Men, not only as a bullies, but also in the role of a victim, are more expressive than women in addition, it has been found that persons who were bullied in the past also apply the same negative behaviour themselves in sport activities later. Athletes’ age has a significant influence on the form of bullying as older persons use a more refined arsenal of means of negative behaviour. Although it has been found that male’s use bullying more often, it is noted that the environment legitimizing aggressiveness may influence greater openness of men, which should be taken into account in future research.This research is funded by the European Social Fund according to the activity ‘Improvement of researchers’ qualification by implementing world-class R&D projects of Measure No. 09.3.3-LMT-K-712-01-0190