Early Detection of Risk Aggressive and Violent Behavior Teams in Youth Soccer

AbstractThe purpose of this study is to design a tool to evaluate sportsmanship and violence for the early detection of teams that show repeatedly aggressive or violent behaviors during youth soccer competitions. Participants in this study were 1364 football teams involved in the Aragonese Federation of Soccer (Spain). For the evaluation of sportsmanship, a three items Likert scale (from 0 to 10) was used related to the sportsmanship behavior of the referees, coaches and players during the competition. The scale shows high internal consistency for the first third of the league (alpha = .823). In the first four matches evaluat ed, 29 teams were identified by mean scores below percentile 10. Scores from these teams in the first four teams evaluated weren’t statistically significantly different from the rest of the competition. Early identification would allow implementing appropriate strategies to improve the quality of the competition in the remaining competition period