The Capabilities, Opportunities and Motivations of Sport Volunteers to Respond to Child Abuse: Results From a National Survey in Australia

The community sport environment presents many unique challenges for safeguarding children and responding to abuse occurring in sport. These include the largely volunteer workforce, the systemic normalisation of abuse, and the existence of "the sport ethic." The aim of this study was to examine the factors that enable or hinder individual volunteers to respond to child abuse in sport, in order to inform the development and delivery of targeted support and safeguarding education initiatives for community sport sector. Community sport volunteers from Australia were invited to complete an online questionnaire. The questions were based on the COM-B theory of behaviour change and were designed to assess their capabilities (C), opportunities (O) and motivations (M) to effectively respond to a disclosure of child abuse in sport (behaviour, B). 218 respondents completed the full survey. Two-thirds of respondents were women, and the mean age was 50 years old. The motivations were high, with capabilities and opportunities both lower. The lowest capabilities were those related to trauma-informed care, with less than half of the respondents knowing what a trauma-informed response is and even fewer agreeing that they could apply the principles to a response. In terms of opportunities, only 55% believed their club made it clear that responding to abuse is part of their role and 20% felt they could face repercussions if they raised an issue of child abuse. Moreover, less than 40% of respondents agree that the current system for reporting child abuse in sport is effective. While volunteers are highly motivated to respond to abuse, they believe the system is not effective and that they are not supported with appropriate resourcing and social support. The low capabilities, particularly in responding to a disclosure, and awareness of resources are elements that should be explicitly targeted in education/training initiatives.