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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Sports Coaching: Performance and Development
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fspor.2025.1520737
This article is part of the Research Topic Safe Sport for Underrepresented or Vulnerable Populations View all articles

Understanding the Bullying Phenomenon Through the Eyes of the Youth Football Coaches in the Portuguese Region of Tâmega e Sousa

Provisionally accepted
Cátia Vaz Cátia Vaz 1José Eduardo Teixeira José Eduardo Teixeira 2Daniel Leite Portella Daniel Leite Portella 3Diogo Monteiro Diogo Monteiro 4Pedro Forte Pedro Forte 1*Sandra Silva-Santos Sandra Silva-Santos 5Joana Ribeiro Joana Ribeiro 1
  • 1 Higher Institute of Educational Sciences of the Douro, Penafiel, Porto, Portugal
  • 2 Instituto Politécnico da Guarda, Guarda, Guarda, Portugal
  • 3 Universidade Municipal de São Caetano do Sul, São Caetano do Sul, Sao Paulo, Brazil
  • 4 Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, Leiria, Leiria, Portugal
  • 5 Instituto de Estudos Superiores de Fafe LDA, Fafe, Portugal

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Bullying is a serious social problem affecting, primarily, children and adolescents in educational and sports environments. Analyzing this phenomenon in contexts where children meet and interact, like football schools/clubs, is critical. The study aims to investigate how youth football coaches perceive bullying and their role in addressing it, as well as to explore bullying as a social phenomenon through the lens of coaches' knowledge and experiences. Twenty-four coaches from the Portuguese region of Tâmega and Sousa highlighted their awareness and concern about the growth of bullying in football, and that everyone is involved (70.8%). The victims are "younger" (83.3%) and "teammates" (54.2%) of the aggressors. Assaults occur mostly due to the victims' "physical characteristics", "behaviors/attitudes" and "sexual orientation". Coaches believe that the aggressors are "opposing team fans" (25.5%), "teammates" (22.6%), "male" (66.67%), "older" than the victims (75%), and attack in "locker rooms" (23.81%) and in "stands" (17.46%). They consider that bullying victims do not seek help (91.67%) due to "fear" (79.17%), and that the sports agents react indifferently (50%) to acts of this nature. Coaches acknowledge that they can play a decisive role in preventing this issue, but do not feel fully prepared to identify warning signs and act in accordance, emphasizing the need to improve coach education through new prevention strategies.

    Keywords: Bullying, Football, Children, Youth, Sports coach

    Received: 06 Nov 2024; Accepted: 03 Feb 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Vaz, Teixeira, Portella, Monteiro, Forte, Silva-Santos and Ribeiro. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Pedro Forte, Higher Institute of Educational Sciences of the Douro, Penafiel, 4560-547, Porto, Portugal

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