The purpose of this study was to provide an accurate depiction of interpersonal violence (IV) in French sports. Thus, the aim of this study was to (a) measure the prevalence of IV experienced by French athletes since joining their current club, (b) accurately describe the victim's profile based on several risk factors, (c) and investigate IV according to a specific timeframe. A total of 2,250 athletes completed the French adaptation of the IV in Sport. Our results indicate a high prevalence of IV in the sporting environment, with 59.7% of participants reporting exposure to at least one form of IV and 3.8% reporting exposition to all forms of IV, highlighting the scale of this phenomenon in French sports clubs. Type of sport was the most influential risk factor for experiencing physical violence while the level of competition appeared to increase the experience of psychological violence, neglect and sexual violence. The results point to the relevance of measuring IV in a specific context and during a specific timeframe, even when accounting for the fact that participants who reported IV were significantly more likely to abandon the questionnaire before completing it.
AlaggiaR. (2010). An ecological analysis of child sexual abuse disclosure: Considerations for child and adolescent mental health. Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry = Journal De L’Academie Canadienne De Psychiatrie De L’enfant Et De L’adolescent, 19(1), 32–39.
2.
AlexanderP. C. (2011). Childhood maltreatment, intimate partner violence, work interference and women’s employment. Journal of Family Violence, 26(4), 255–261. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-011-9361-9
3.
ConstandtB.VertommenT.CoxL.KavanaghE.KumarB. P.PankowiakA.ParentS.WoessnerM. (2024). Quid interpersonal violence in the sport integrity literature? A scoping review. Sport in Society, 27(1), 162–180. https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2023.2233433
4.
GalesicM.BosnjakM. (2009). Effects of questionnaire length on participation and indicators of response quality in a web survey. Public Opinion Quarterly, 73(2), 349–360. https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfp031
5.
GrahamJ. W.TaylorB. J.OlchowskiA. E.CumsilleP. E. (2006). Planned missing data designs in psychological research. Psychological Methods, 11(4), 323–343. https://doi.org/10.1037/1082-989X.11.4.323
6.
HartillM.RulofsB.LangA.VertommenT.AllroggenM.CireraE.DiketmuellerR.KampenJ.KohlA.MartinM.NanuI.NeetenM.SageD.StativaE. (2021). CASES: Child abuse in sport: European statistics—Project report. Edge Hill University.
7.
HauwD.MarsollierÉCrettaz Von RotenF. (2024). La violence interpersonnelle à l’encontre des jeunes sportifs européens: Prévalence et gravité de la situation en Suisse romande. European Review of Applied Psychology, 74(4), Article 100930. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erap.2023.100930
8.
HeathJ.WilliamsonH.WilliamsL.HarcourtD. (2018). “It's just more personal”: Using multiple methods of qualitative data collection to facilitate participation in research focusing on sensitive subjects. Applied Nursing Research, 43, 30–35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apnr.2018.06.015
9.
KassG. V. (1980). An exploratory technique for investigating large quantities of categorical data. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, 29(2), 119–127. https://doi.org/10.2307/2986296
10.
KrugE.DahlbergL.MercyJ.ZwiA.LozanoR. (2002). World report on violence and health. World Health Organization.
11.
KuhnM.JohnsonK. (2013). Regression trees and rule-based models. In KuhnM.JohnsonK. (Eds.), Applied predictive modeling (pp. 173–220). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6849-3_8
12.
MarsollierE.HauwD.Crettaz Von RotenF. (2021). Understanding the prevalence rates of interpersonal violence experienced by young French-speaking Swiss athletes. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, Article 726635. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.726635
13.
MarsollierE.Meriaux-ScoffierS.AmiotS. (2023). Violence en sport. In FournierJ. (Ed.), Psychologie du sport et de l’activité physique (pp. 123–134). Elsevier-Masson.
14.
Ministère des Sports de la Jeunesse et de la Vie Associative. (2025). 6e convention nationale de prévention des violences dans le sport. INSEP.
15.
MuthénL. K.MuthénB. O. (1998). Mplus (Version 7.11) [Computer software]. Muthén&Muthén.
16.
O’ConnorJ.AlfreyL.PenneyD. (2022). Rethinking the classification of games and sports in physical education: A response to changes in sport and participation. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 29(3), 315–328. https://doi.org/10.1080/17408989.2022.2061938
17.
OhlertJ.VertommenT.RulofsB.RauT.AllroggenM. (2021). Elite athletes’ experiences of interpersonal violence in organized sport in Germany, The Netherlands, and Belgium. European Journal of Sport Science, 21(4), 604–613. https://doi.org/10.1080/17461391.2020.1781266
18.
PankowiakA.WoessnerM. N.ParentS.VertommenT.EimeR.SpaaijR.HarveyJ.ParkerA. G. (2023). Psychological, physical, and sexual violence against children in Australian community sport: Frequency, perpetrator, and victim characteristics. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 38(3–4), 4338–4365. https://doi.org/10.1177/08862605221114155
19.
ParentS.ClermontC.RadziszewskiS.VertommenT.DionJ. (2023). Child maltreatment and links with experiences of interpersonal violence in sport in a sample of Canadian adolescents. Social Sciences, 12(6), Article 336. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci12060336
20.
ParentS.FortierK.Vaillancourt-MorelM.-P.LessardG.GouletC.DemersG.ParadisH.HartillM. (2019). Development and initial factor validation of the Violence Toward Athletes Questionnaire (VTAQ) in a sample of young athletes. Loisir et Société / Society and Leisure, 42(3), 471–486. https://doi.org/10.1080/07053436.2019.1682262
21.
ParentS.RadziszewskiS.GillardA.Bélanger-GravelA.GagnéM.-H.St-PierreE.VertommenT.WoodburnA. (2024). Development and initial validation of the perceived instrumental effects of violence in sport scale. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 6, Article 1355958. https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2024.1355958
22.
ParentS.Vaillancourt-MorelM.-P. (2020). Magnitude and risk factors for interpersonal violence experienced by Canadian teenagers in the sport context. Journal of Sport & Social Issues, 45(6), 528–544. https://doi.org/10.1177/0193723520973571
23.
RivraisC.NicaiseV.Ottogalli-MazzacavalloC. (2024). Motifs d’engagement: freins et leviers à la pratique du football. Étude exploratoire auprès des jeunes footballeur/ses de haut niveau. Movement & Sport Sciences-Science & Motricité, 124(2), 13–23. https://doi.org/10.1051/sm/2023023
24.
RolstadS.AdlerJ.RydénA. (2011). Response burden and questionnaire length: Is shorter better? A review and meta-analysis. Value in Health: The Journal of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research, 14(8), 1101–1108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jval.2011.06.003
25.
SmithK.PlattL. (2013). How do children answer questions about frequencies and quantities? Evidence from a large-scale field test. Centre for Longitudinal Studies, UCL Institute of Education.
26.
SwamiV.MaïanoC.MorinA. J. S. (2023). A guide to exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) and bifactor-ESEM in body image research. Body Image, 47, Article 101641. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2023.101641
27.
TimpkaT.JansonS.JacobssonJ.DahlströmÖ.SprecoA.KowalskiJ.BargoriaV.MountjoyM.SvedinC. G. (2019). Lifetime history of sexual and physical abuse among competitive athletics (track and field) athletes: Cross sectional study of associations with sports and non-sports injury. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 53(22), 1412–1417. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2018-099335
28.
VertommenT.DecuyperM.ParentS.PankowiakA.WoessnerM. N. (2022). Interpersonal violence in Belgian sport today: Young athletes report. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(18), Article 11745. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191811745
29.
VertommenT.Schipper-van VeldhovenN.WoutersK.KampenJ. K.BrackenridgeC. H.RhindD. J. A.NeelsK.Van Den EedeF. (2016). Interpersonal violence against children in sport in the Netherlands and Belgium. Child Abuse & Neglect, 51, 223–236. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2015.10.006
30.
VertommenT.SølvbergN.LangM.KampenJ. K. (2024). Are some sports riskier than others? An investigation into child athlete experiences of interpersonal violence in relation to sport type and gender. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 60(5), 921–945. https://doi.org/10.1177/10126902241290576
31.
WillsonE.KerrG.StirlingA.BuonoS. (2021). Prevalence of maltreatment among Canadian national team athletes. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 37(21–22), NP19857–NP19879. https://doi.org/10.1177/08862605211045096
32.
WoessnerM. N.PankowiakA.KavanaghE.ParentS.VertommenT.EimeR.SpaaijR.HarveyJ.ParkerA. G. (2024). Telling adults about it: Children's experience of disclosing interpersonal violence in community sport. Sport in Society, 27(5), 661–680. https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2023.2268555
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
