Roberta Antonini Philippe

Coaches play a critical role in safeguarding athletes from interpersonal violence (IV), yet their ability to recognize, evaluate, and address such incidents remains understudied. This study explored coaches’ accuracy in recognizing violent and ambiguous scenarios, their perception of severity, and their likelihood of reporting these incidents, as well as the psychological factors influencing coaches’ responses. A sample of 145 performance sport coaches (21% female, M _age = 48.97, SD = 11.02) completed an online survey featuring sport-related vignettes and psychometric scales, namely the Perceived Instrumental Effects of Violence in Sport (PIEVS) scale, the Collective Motal Attitudes in Sport (KMES) scale and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Findings revealed that coaches failed to recognize nearly 30% of violent scenarios, with notable difficulties in recognizing neglect, and correctly classified only 45% of ambiguous cases. Misclassified violent scenarios received lower ratings for both severity and likelihood of reporting, with effect sizes differing by type of violence. For ambiguous scenarios, misclassification tended to increase severity and reporting for psychological and neglect cases but showed a robust effect only for the sexual vignette, highlighting that ambiguity is not interpreted uniformly. Small but significant correlations emerged between PIEVS scores and recognition accuracy in violent scenarios (ρ = −.177, p = .033), as well as severity ratings for ambiguous scenarios (ρ = −.258, p = .007). KMES scores showed a small positive correlation with severity ratings in violent scenarios (ρ = .203, p = .014). Overall, these results highlight the challenges coaches face in recognizing and addressing IV in sport and point to a limited understanding of the factors that shape their responses. There is a clear need for targeted, context-sensitive educational interventions to strengthen coaches’ safeguarding practices, with particular attention to less visible forms of violence such as neglect.

Self-compassion has emerged as a valuable skill for performers, contributing to both their well-being and performance enhancement. However, the question remains: how can it be effectively integrated and cultivated within performers’ daily practice? This study examines the extent to which self-compassion is integrated by performers, its practical application, and the role of the social environment in shaping these skills. A total of 27 performers (athletes, dancers, and musicians), aged 14–27, practicing at a pre-professional level, participated in semi-structured interviews. These interviews explored performers’ responses to challenging situations during practice, the coping strategies employed, the use or non-use of self-compassion, and the influence of their social environment. Through a thematic analysis, six key themes emerged, each comprising subthemes: Explore your inner critic; Balance over-identification; Use strategies to overcome setbacks; Create a virtuous circle; Acknowledge your social environment; and, Learn about yourself. The findings revealed that performers continue to place significant emphasis on self-criticism, often neglecting self-kindness when most needed. Despite this, they recognize the benefits of self-compassion and report various strategies to manage difficulties. Additionally, the importance of the coach’s communication style and the performers’ desire to be better understood by their coach were emphasized. This qualitative study provides deeper insights into the experiences of performers and offers practical guidance on how self-compassion can be more effectively integrated into their daily practice.

Musical performances require significant physical effort and musculoskeletal injuries are an integral part of musicians’ careers. The physical strains of performances are often accompanied by psychological stresses that can accelerate the development of particular physical injuries. This study aimed to understand the protective or deleterious effects of motivation, self-efficacy and rumination. We conducted a cross-sectional study of data collected retrospectively from 121 musical artists. Participants completed sociodemographic, medical, and psychological questionnaires. The artists were divided into previously injured ( n = 66, 54.5%) and not previously injured ( n = 55, 45.5%) groups. Significant inter-group differences were found for age ( p < .05), years of performing ( p < .01), and hours of practising ( p < .001). No differences were found for sex and total musical practice. Overall, 74.1% of the periods lost to injury lasted under 30 days. Almost all injuries (98.4%) involved the upper limbs or trunk, most frequently hands (15.3%) and wrists (15.3%). Muscles (39.7%) and tendons (26.5%) were the usual tissues damaged. The previously injured and not previously injured groups showed no differences regarding the dimensions of motivation ( p > .05), self-efficacy ( p > .05 ) or rumination. However, there were significant inter-group differences for the subdimensions of integrated motivation ( p < .05), introjected motivation ( p < .05), and the intrusiveness of repetitive negative thinking ( p < .05). The present study’s epidemiological data highlighted the need to provide musicians with better support for their physical preparedness. Promoting more comprehensive care for this population and improving their biopsychosocial well-being could improve their ability to manage stress and injuries and implement effective coping strategies.

Beliefs about the instrumental effects of violence are a factor explaining abuse in sports. The availability of a valid and reliable scale to measure these beliefs can contribute to a better understanding of their nature and role in facilitating violence. This article introduces and validates the German version of the Perceived Instrumental Effects of Violence in Sport Scale (PIEVS-G-14). Study 1 examines the translation and evaluation of the scale structure, the development of a short version (PIEVS-G-6), and the construct validity and reliability of both the full and short versions in a sample of youth sports coaches ( n = 628). Studies 2 ( n = 444) and 3 ( n = 423) focus on cross-validating the structure of the PIEVS-G-14 and PIEVS-G-6 in two independent samples of youth sports coaches and provide further evidence of the construct validity and reliability of the scales. The results of the dimensional and psychometric tests offer evidence of the suitability of the PIEVS-G-14 and PIEVS-G-6 for use in German-speaking sports contexts.

Sport psychology research of ultra-endurance (UE) athletes focused predominantly on their psychological characteristics, traits, and behaviors. However, their happiness and passion, as well as a unified framework for UE hobby phenomenon, were not sufficiently investigated. This study aims to: (1) identify the main contributors to happiness and passion of non-professional UE athletes; and (2) explore the possible relationships between types of sport passion, motivation, and athletic identity. During data collection, 116 non-professional UE athletes (mean age 43.66 years, SD = 8.97, 16.4% female) responded to an online questionnaire. Statistical analyses revealed that obsessive UE passion (p < 0.05) and amotivation (p < 0.05) predicted lower levels of happiness. A higher level of obsessive passion was predicted by extrinsic motivation (p < 0.005), amotivation (p < 0.05), and exclusivity identity (p < 0.001); a lower level was predicted by social identity (p < 0.05) and years in sports (p < 0.05). Weekly training hours and age correlated positively with passion strength, while amotivation was strongly negatively related to training volume. These results indicate that happiness of UE athletes depends on the type of sport passion formed and the quality of the underlying motivation: obsessive passion and amotivation seem to be the main enemies of happiness for UE athletes. This novel finding connecting passion, happiness, and motivation contributes to both a better understanding of the psychology of UE athletes and has practical implications for UE athletes, coaches, athletes’ social circles, and sport psychologists. Due to known maladaptive outcomes of obsessive passion, including its negative impact on overall well-being, health, and now also on happiness, its formation in UE athletes needs to be observed and prevented. While the study shows predictors of obsessive passion and high vs. low obsessive passion, future research should investigate how harmonious passion impacts athletes’ happiness, motivation, and identity. Likewise, research among the UE entourage would help to better understand the social impact of UE as a serious hobby and the formation of UE lifestyles. We also suggest our Temporal Framework for Progressive UE Engagement and Passion, which was further developed based on the results of this study, to be used and validated by sport psychologists.

Introduction Beliefs about the instrumental effects of maltreatment are a factor explaining abuse in sports. The availability of a valid and reliable German scale measuring these beliefs is essential for a better understanding of the concept. This article introduces and validates the German version of the Perceived Instrumental Effects of Maltreatment in Sport scale (PIEMS-G-14). Methods Study 1 examines the translation and evaluation of the scale structure, the development of a short version (PIEMS-G-6), and both the full and short versions’ construct validity and reliability in a sample of youth sports coaches (n = 628). Studies 2 (n = 444) and 3 (n = 423) focus on cross-validating the structure of the PIEMS-G-14 and PIEMS-G-6 in two independent samples of youth sports coaches and provide further evidence of the construct validity and reliability of the scales. Results Despite a reduction in the number of items compared to the original instrument, the PIEMS-G-14 exhibited robust measurement capabilities. The PIEMS-G-6, also demonstrated promising psychometric properties in assessing coaches’ beliefs about the instrumental effects of maltreatment. The reliability and validity of both the PIEMS-G-14 and PIEMS-G-6 were further supported by rigorous examination with two independent samples, providing compelling evidence of their construct validity. Discussion/Conclusion The PIEMS-G-14 and PIEMS-G-6 are suitable for use in assessing beliefs about the instrumental effects of maltreatment in German-speaking sports contexts.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused major changes to many areas at the very heart of our lives, triggering interventions that affected people’s everyday activities, both socially and individually. The use of e-learning and online platforms to support music education and performance created a drastic shift in how music was taught, made, and enjoyed. This qualitative study provides personal insights into the practices that choir conductors developed when in-person music-making became impossible due to health risks. Thirty-four Italian choir conductors answered 11 open questions about their musical activities and associated personal experiences during the main lockdown periods in 2020 and 2021. Our findings highlighted four overarching themes—adapted strategies, the perception of technology for choral music performances, needs for achieving mental health, and remote music-making—that are contextualized and discussed.

The explosion of popularity of ultra-endurance (UE) sports in the last 20 years has attracted a lot of interest amongst sport psychologists who studied many aspects of their participants. However, a temporal perspective on the development of the UE engagement was missing. With this research we aimed to explore the long-term individual journeys of UE athletes and how their passion developed over time from the moment of inception to full adoption of UE as an identity and a lifestyle. For this purpose, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 16 UE athletes (12 male and 4 female, mean age 43.4, SD 10) in cycling, trail running and triathlon. Five key themes (with 13 sub-themes) of their UE engagement journey emerged as the result of the interpretative phenomenological analysis of the interviews: 1) The making of the UE athlete, 2) Finding the tribe, 3) Peak experiences, 4) UE lifestyle and 5) UE passion and outcomes. Rich descriptions were generated demonstrating that the development journey of UE athletes is a multi-year, sometimes life-long endeavour, which is full of unique experiences, emotional rollercoasters, passion, overcoming and surrender stories and also of spiritual growth. And while each journey we heard was unique, we could observe similarities in its key milestones. We summarized them in a wholistic UE journey framework which we developed based on this research. The new “Temporal framework for progressive UE engagement and passion development” is presented here for discussion and further validation.