Aggression, Sports, and the
Moral Development of Italian
Adolescents
Franco Zengaro
Middle Tennessee State University
Sally Zengaro
University of Alabama
Marcello Malfi
ICT, Castrolibero, Italy
Fan Violence—Catania-Palermo
Team Violence—Inter
World Cup: Argentina-Germany
Banned Substances
Rugby
Rioting after Univ. of MN Hockey
game
Research Problem

Cox (2002) wrote that part of the problem
surrounding sports and moral behavior is
that many sports, particularly high contact
sports, often seem to encourage
aggressive behavior that would normally
be unacceptable outside of the sports
context.
Bracketed Morality


Sports legitimize acts of aggression that
would normally be considered against
one’s moral standards.
In order to participate in sports
competitions, athletes must suspend the
level of morality that they would normally
use in every day life (Bredemeier, 1994;
Cox, 2002).
Question

How does aggression in sports influence
the moral development of youth?
Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this research is to
investigate the relationship between
sports participation and the moral
development of Italian adolescents.
Literature


Bredemeier (1983, 1985) has linked
aggressive tendencies in sport participants
to lower levels of moral reasoning.
Bredemeier (1994) found that children
who had higher levels of moral reasoning
showed lower levels of aggression in
response to conflict.
Literature


Telama & Liukkonen (1999) found that
boys who played organized sports were
more prone to aggression than boys who
didn’t.
Segrave, Hastad, and colleagues have
found a negative relationship between
sports participation and acts of
delinquency.
Sports and Ethical Conduct
Silva (1983)
Females—those who hadn’t played sports and those
who had played more than 11 years approved of
more fouls. Males—those who had participated in
sports in high school or college approved of more
fouls than those who hadn’t played sports or who
played in only youth sports.
Kavussanu and
Roberts (2001)
A relationship between ego orientation and moral
judgments about of fouls and cheating in sport.
Ommundsen,
A performance orientation was associated with lower
Roberts, Lemyre,
levels of moral functioning, lower sportspersonship,
and Treasure (2003) and a higher rate of approval of inappropriate sports
behavior.
Kavussanu and
An ego orientation mediated the relationship
Ntoumanis (2003)
between sports participation and moral functioning.
Romand, Pantaleon, and
Cabagno (2009)
While moral reasoning increased
with age, soccer players also
became more approving of
inappropriate behavior.
Proios and Doganis (2006)
Moral reasoning increased steadily
across age groups. Education
plays a significant role in moral
reasoning development.
Long, Pantaleon, and Bruant Organized sports players felt a
greater responsibility toward their
(2008)
team and obedience to their
coach. Self-organized players
expressed a moral responsibility
for each others’ safety and the
need for a mature attitude.
Theoretical Framework



Kohlberg’s stages of moral development:
Pre-Conventional, Conventional, PostConventional thinking
Cognitive-Developmental Framework:
Maturity is dependent on physiological, cognitive
and affective development.
Moral Disengagement, based on social cognitive
theory, as motivation for moral decisions.
People who behave inhumanely have found a
way to disengage their morals.
Research Questions




1) Do younger adolescents report a difference in the
acceptance of cheating or of sportspersonship than older
adolescents?
2) Is there a difference in the way older vs. younger
participants report an ability to keep winning in
proportion?
3) Does an acceptance of cheating or sportspersonship
or keeping winning in proportion have a relationship to
prosocial behavior?
4) Does an acceptance of cheating or sportspersonship
or keeping winning in proportion have a relationship to
moral disengagement?
Definitions



Aggression—cheating, sportspersonship,
and the inability to keep winning in
proportion.
Sportspersonship—actions that aren’t
against the rules but violate the spirit of
fair play
Keeping winning in proportion—winning at
all costs vs. accepting winning and losing
as a part of life.
Method

Participants: 314 adolescents ages 13-19
attending high school in southern Italy.
117 females and 197 males.
Participants
Ages-n
13-14
Years Playing-n
26
15-16
124
17-18
111
18+
53
0-2
80
3-4
66
5-6
54
7-8
37
8+
77
Data Collection

The participants completed demographic
data, the Attitudes about Moral Decisionmaking in Youth Sport Questionnaire
(AMDYSQ), a Questionnaire on Prosocial
Behavior, and a Questionnaire on Moral
Disengagement.
Data Analysis
2 (gender) x 4 (age) x 5 (participation)
MANOVA and Pearson correlation
Results




Significant positive correlations were found
between moral disengagement and the
acceptance of cheating (r=.395, p=.01)
Moral disengagement and the acceptance of
sportspersonship (r=.351, p=.01)
Prosocial behavior and keeping winning in
proportion (r=.276, p=.01)
Cheating and sportspersonship (r=.481, p=.01)
Significant Negative Correlations





Prosocial behavior and cheating (r=-.137,
p=.05)
Prosocial behavior and sportspersonship (r=.193, p=.01)
Age and sportspersonship (r=-.121, p=.05)
Moral disengagement and keeping winning in
proportion (r=-.15, p=.01)
Cheating and keeping winning in proportion (r=.262, p=.01)
MANOVA





Significant interaction with all 3 independent
variables, F (60, 1268.03) = 1.578, p = .004
Cheating, F (39)=1.879, p=.002
Sportspersonship, F (39) = 1.721, p = .007)
Age x sportspersonship, F (3)=3.128, p=.026
Years playing x gender x sportspersonship, F (4)
= 2.556, p = .039
Research Question 1

Overall, younger adolescents were less
accepting of cheating than older
adolescents. Younger females are less
accepting of sportspersonship than older
females.
Graph 1—Acceptance of Cheating
Graph 2—Acceptance of RuleBending
Acceptance of Sportspersonship by
gender and years playing sports
55
Means
50
45
Males
40
Females
35
30
0 to 2
3 to 4
5 to 6
Years
7 to 8
Over 8

It appears that playing sports moderates
the relationship between age and gender
and acceptance of sportspersonship. Age
and gender alone do not have a significant
relationship with sportspersonship.
Research Question 2

There was no significant difference in
keeping winning in proportion across age
groups.
Graph 3—Keeping Winning in
Proportion
Research Question 3



Negative and significant correlation
between cheating and prosocial behavior.
Negative and significant correlation
between sportspersonship and prosocial
behavior.
There was a positive and significant
relationship between keeping winning in
proportion and prosocial behavior.
Graph 4—Prosocial Behavior
Research Question 4



There was a positive and significant relationship
between cheating and moral disengagement.
There was a positive and significant relationship
between sportspersonship and moral
disengagement.
There was a negative and significant relationship
between moral disengagement and keeping
winning in proportion.
Graph 5—Moral Disengagement
Discussion



From the interaction of age, gender, and sports
participation, we can see there is a complex
relationship between moral development and
sports.
While past research has found that older
adolescents score higher on moral
disengagement, this study did not.
Past research has also found that prosocial
scores were higher in females than males, but
this study did not.



Males who play sports seem to be less
accepting of cheating and rule-bending
the older they are and the more they play
sports.
Females who are older and those who
don’t play sports seem to be the most
accepting of rule-breaking and rulebending as well as females who play the
most sports.
15-16 year-olds are the most accepting of
aggression.
Questions for Discussion



What is different between males’ and
females’ experiences with sports?
Are female adolescents coached differently
than males?
What is the qualitative difference in
playing some sports and playing many
years of sports?
Future Directions for Research


Examining the role of identity formation in
adolescents—How does identity influence sports
participation? How does identity influence
adolescents’ views of the world for those who
don’t play sports, especially for females?
When girls do not develop an adequate sense of
identity, they become more cynical towards life,
themselves and others, and they put a greater
emphasis on pleasing others rather than
themselves (Hamacheck, 1988).