The Role of Theory in the Prevention of Sexual Violence in Sport.

Sexual violence (SV) remains at epidemic proportions in the U.S. and growing evidence demonstrates that youth and adults engaged in sport are at increased risk of victimization and perpetration of SV. Unfortunately, sport SV prevention strategies are rarely built on theory or theoretically grounded evidence, despite demonstrated effectiveness of such approaches. This study aimed to answer to questions: 1) Which theories are relevant to the development of effective SV prevention strategies in sport?; and 2) How has theory been incorporated into existing SV prevention literature on sport safety? A scoping review of the literature plus expert input identified 29 theories pertinent to SV prevention in sport. A systemized review of the literature regarding SV prevention in sport resulted in the identification and characterization of 41 published articles. Authors then examined theory's role in prevention literature. This study identified 29 theories pertinent to SV prevention in sports and applicable across the behavioral spectrum. Most theories were rooted in the Behavioral (41%), Situational (24%) or Social/Attitudinal (21%) areas. Less common were theories grounded in Feminist (14%) domains. Theories were predominantly focused at the individual (42%), organizational (29%), and interpersonal (18%) ecological levels. Of the 41 sport prevention articles, 33 (83%) referred to a theory either explicitly or implicitly. Though most theories have been incorporated into prevention efforts, closer examination indicates that the majority were descriptive, unlikely to use a sophisticated methodology (10%; e.g., experimental, quasi-experimental), and rarely intended to assess a specific prevention program/strategy or policy (21%). Strong theoretical foundations are available for SV prevention research focused on sports, and their application appears to show value across the developmental spectrum of athletes. There remains a need for greater focus on theory-driven research intended to develop prevention strategies and policies designed to enhance athlete safety.

Prevention of Sexual Violence in sport: A Socioecological Review.

Sexual violence in sport is prevalent and represents a serious public health concern. The social-ecological model for health promotion has been used successfully as a framework to identify individual-to-policy level factors aimed at health promotion or disease prevention. The purpose of this review was to examine both published and non-published (publicly available) SVP efforts conducted within the context of sport and make recommendations for future practice. Grey literature search methods were utilized to conduct a review of publicly available documents. This included (a) a comprehensive Google search using unique search terms that would identify SVP efforts within sport settings and (b) a review of the publicly accessible websites identified in the previous step. Following the grey literature search, and using the SVP practices identified in step one, we conducted a supplementary literature search using scientific publication search engines to identify whether the SVP practices identified in step one had associated peer-reviewed publications. Finally, we assessed various characteristics of each SVP practice including the target population, age range of intended participants, and whether the SVP had associated peer review publications. This led to the identification of 35 unique SVP practices: 25 (71%) SVP practices were assigned to the Intrapersonal level, 6 (17%) were assigned to the Interpersonal level, 9 (26%) were assigned to the Organizational level, 3 (9%) were assigned to the Community, and 2 (6%) were assigned to the Policy level. This review uncovered several important findings including a lack of multi-level SVP practices within sport, a lack of SVP practices that target children, minimal programming aimed at specifically preventing perpetration, the need to elevate policy level action, and a lack of peer-reviewed literature. Ultimately findings suggest that sport organizations ought to prioritize sexual violence prevention using national organizations for guidance.