Turkish coaches’ perspectives on safeguarding in sport: Self-assessed knowledge,intervention behaviours,and prevention needs

Abstract

This study examines Turkish coaches’ understanding of safe sport and safeguarding, perceived prevalence of harassment and abuse in sport, self-assessed knowledge and intervention, and prevention needs. A cross-sectional, 20-item survey was administered online and hard copy to 1612 coaches (517 female, 1095 male) from 56 federations. Quantitative data were analysed with descriptive and inferential statistics, and qualitative responses underwent inductive content analysis. The findings indicate that coaches most frequently defined safe sport as an environment free from all types of harassment and abuse and safeguarding as physical and mental protection. Psychological abuse was most frequently perceived (70.1%); for all types, prevalence was rated higher for Türkiye's general sport environment than for coaches’ own disciplines (McNemar's test, all p < .001). Self-assessed knowledge (M = 3.82) and intervention (M = 4.20) were moderate to high and correlated (r = .48, p < .001), with a small gender effect on knowledge. Logistic models indicated higher odds for females (knowledge OR = 1.56; intervention OR = 1.52) and lower odds for trained coaches crossing high thresholds (knowledge OR = 0.66; intervention OR = 0.77). Finally, coaches’ strongly voiced demand for the safeguarding training, together with their identification of unsafe training/competition conditions as the primary risk, underscores the need to clarify the definitions of, and reporting mechanisms for, harassment and abuse in sport. The priority should be to nationally standardized and internationally aligned safe sport policies.