Collegiate Athletes' Perceptions of the Legitimacy of Aggression in Sport

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to examine the perception of legitimacy of aggressive acts by male and female contact, noncontact, collision, and intramural athletes at the collegiate level. It was hypothesized that males would perceive aggressive acts as more legitimate than female athletes and collision and contact athletes would perceive aggressive acts as more legitimate than noncontact and intramural athletes. Collegiate varsity and intramural athletes (<i>N</i> = 237) completed a demographic questionnaire and a modified version of the Sport Behavior Inventory (Conroy, Silva, Newcomer, Walker, & Johnson, 2001), which evaluated the perception of legitimacy of aggressive acts. Results revealed that male athletes perceived aggressive acts as more legitimate than female athletes. Additionally, collision sport athletes and noncontact sport athletes perceived aggressive acts as more legitimate than contact sport athletes. No interaction was found between gender and sport type. This research assists in understanding the connection between sport socialization and perceived legitimacy of aggressive acts in sport.