“It’s similar to what we see in other sports: that it’s primarily psychological abuse that stands out,” says Carolina Lundqvist, docent in psychology and sports science and licensed psychotherapist at the Department of Behavioural Sciences at Linköping University.
Psychological abuse the most common
Cheerleading is growing rapidly in Sweden. There are about 18,000 practitioners, many of whom are children and young people.
“But we have a problem of athletes quitting in the upper secondary school age group. We wanted to investigate why and bring about a change,” says Katarina Eriksson, general secretary of the Swedish Cheerleading Federation.
If you want to be relevant to new generations changes must be made
The most common reason was experience of psychological abuse. This could involve being frozen out of the community, diminished or devalued, being manipulated orexperiencing threats. The severity of the abuse experienced was not measured in this study.
The second most common reason for quitting was that athletes experienced a lack of support when someone in a position of responsibility knew of harassment or abuse but took no action. About 5 per cent of current and 27 per cent of former athletes reported that they had experienced this.
The consequence may be that the athlete retires prematurely. More than 35 per cent of former athletes reported that they had quit because of their coaches’ leadership and 34 per cent gave injuries as the reason. 27 per cent reported high expectations as the cause and 22 per cent poor team cohesion and atmosphere.
Athletes talk afterwards
Previous research shows that it is often only after their career that athletes talk about various forms of abuse. According to Carolina Lundqvist, this may be because attitudes and
The results of the study point to the importance of educating leaders at all levels and actively working with initiatives that ensure that sports environments are safe, healthy and nurturing.
“I think old norms and an attitude that puts performance before health are what’s getting in the way,” says Carolina Lundqvist.
New generations
She hopes that more Swedish sport organisations will do what the Cheerleading Federation has done: allow themselves to be examined in order to prevent, remedy and progress.
The Cheerleading Federation has now begun work on developing training courses for coaches and has already drawn up a new code of conduct for leaders. Since many in the study indicated injuries as a reason for quitting, the federation wants to increase coaches’ knowledge of how training can be conducted to prevent injuries.
“To put it bluntly, if you want to be relevant to new generations and also live up to what sport is actually meant to stand for, then changes must be made,” says Katarina Eriksson at the Cheerleading Federation.
Additional contact: Katarina Eriksson, general secretary of the Swedish Cheerleading Federation: 079-304 16 82, gs@cheerleading.se
Article: Prevalence of Harassment, Abuse, and Mental Health among Current and Retired Senior Swedish Cheerleaders, C Lundqvist, Journal of Sports Sciences, online 2024, doi: 10.1080/02640414.2024.2405791
Translation: Simon Phillips
