Bullying in children’s football: An insight from the families’ and coaches’ point of views

Abstract

This study looks further into bullying in children’s (aged 8-14) football, listening to families and coaches from different contexts, characteristics and sports levels. Focus groups are developed so that both families and coaches can think about the main factors associated with the detection of bullying, the problems it may cause, and how to prevent it, speaking from their own experiences and personal lives. The findings revealed that families and coaches consider that bullying in children’s football is a serious problem that needs to be addressed. They all agree on the fact that they lack information about how to detect, prevent and address bullying. However, participants tend to trivialize the problem somehow. The findings enable us to identify which factors have families and coaches more concerned and can be used to help to detect and prevent bullying based on real problems exposed.