New CDC-funded research will identify ways to help prevent sexual abuse in youth sports
Youth sports present unique risks for child sexual abuse.
The Center for Violence Prevention Research has partnered with USA Football and Stop It Now! for a first-of-its-kind research project to identify abuse prevention methods specifically for the youth sports setting.
The Center will share the novel, data-backed strategies resulting from this study to help keep young athletes everywhere safe from harm.
When it comes to youth athletics, there is plenty to cheer for. Even beyond the physical advantages, there are many well-documented benefits for youth who engage in organized sports. Youth participating in sports see increased confidence, better grades, and lower rates of substance abuse and other risky behaviors. Coaching staff can also serve as mentors for young athletes, positively shaping their self-esteem as they make the sometimes awkward and uncomfortable journey to adulthood. But disturbing, high-profile cases in recent years — Jerry Sandusky and Larry Nassar, to name a few — have exposed the darker side of youth sports.
Inherent risks for abuse
While most athletes will never experience sexual abuse within the context of their sport, participation in organized sports does present inherent risks for child sexual abuse. For example, youth in sports tend to:
1. Spend extensive time with coaching staff — think multiple practices per week or overnight travel for away games;
2. View their coach and staff as authorities and want to please them;
3. Accept physical contact from coaches — correcting form or adjusting padding, for example — as the norm;
4. Form deep, trusting relationships with coaching staff.
According to the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data, in 91% of child sexual abuse cases, the perpetrator is someone known and trusted by the child or the child’s family[1]. Released in September 2023, the Netflix documentary, “Scouts Honor: The Secret Files of the Boy Scouts of America,” details a staggering 82,000 reported cases of sexual abuse within the Boy Scouts and demonstrates the potential for systemic abuse when adults are allowed to manipulate their position of trust and authority within organized youth activities.
Youth sports are also extremely popular. According to the National Institutes of Health, 75% of U.S. families with school-aged children have at least one child who participates. Taken together, youth sports’ popularity and its inherent risk factors make these leagues a crucial setting for the Center’s sexual abuse prevention work.
Novel prevention study
Funded by the CDC, the Center’s first-of-its-kind research initiative will occur over five years in collaboration with Stop It Now!, a leading expert in child sexual abuse prevention. USA Football, American football’s governing body, will serve as the community partner making this research possible. The project will begin with a benchmark survey of USA Football youth coaches for the prevalence of unsafe thoughts and behaviors — data that has never before been gathered at scale.
For the next phase of the study, Stop It Now! has adapted its well-respected adult education program for the youth sports setting. Coaching staff will participate in child sexual abuse prevention training using specialized tools, including videos, advice columns, tip sheets, and a helpline — all customized for USA Football-affiliated league leadership, coaches, and staff. A second group of coaching staff will not participate in the trainings to serve as the study’s control group. During years three to five of the study, the Center will conduct a rigorous evaluation to identify changes in understanding and behavior among the coaches who participated in the trainings and compare them with coaches in the control group.
Following year five, the Center will begin an extensive awareness campaign to share our findings so youth sports everywhere can benefit from what we’ve learned about what works and what doesn’t. We will also detail how to integrate effective prevention into youth sports programs to help keep young athletes safe from harm.
Support our innovative violence prevention research
According to the CDC, about one in four girls and one in 13 boys in the United States experience child sexual abuse at some point — statistics that are almost certainly an undercount, as many children wait to report or never report their abuse. By bridging the gap between scientists and the community, we can conduct research that helps prevent this kind of abuse before it starts.
To do our work, we need your help. Your donation to the Center has the power to support research on sexual abuse prevention that will protect more young people from the devastating consequences of sexual abuse.
Partners and Funders
University of New Hampshire, CDC, USA Football, Stop it Now!