Abstract
The purpose of the present study is to examine the deviant behaviors of young athletes the using extended theory of planned behavior (TPB) and impulsivity. About 536 middle and high school athletes in South Korea answered a set of questionnaires that measured their attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, intention, ethical obligation, and impulsivity. Structural equation model (SEM) analysis revealed that the extended TPB model is adequate to explain deviant behaviors in sports. Further, the underlying intentions that motivate the deviant behaviors of athletes in sports were significantly predicted by perceived behavioral control and moral obligation. Findings also suggested that the intention for deviant behaviors in sports more readily manifests as an actual act when the impulsivity scores are high. Theoretical contributions and practical implications are addressed in the Discussion section.
Highlights
Participation in sports can promote ethical behavior and the development of healthy morals (Weiss and Bredemeier, 1990; Shields and Bredemeier, 1995; Clifford and Feezell, 1997)
Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis was used to test the adequacy of the extended model of theory of planned behavior (TPB) that had moral obligation as an additional variable to predict unethical behaviors with greater accuracy (Schwartz and Tessler, 1972; Gorsuch and Ortberg, 1983; Beck and Ajzen, 1991)
Four predictive variables, including moral obligation (R2 = 0.809), accounted for the intention of behaviors (∼81%) and explained the variance of athlete behavior, which was calculated as R2 = 0.369
Summary
Participation in sports can promote ethical behavior and the development of healthy morals (Weiss and Bredemeier, 1990; Shields and Bredemeier, 1995; Clifford and Feezell, 1997). Unfair play and other unethical behaviors that would otherwise cause problems in everyday life are often overlooked in sports settings because the athletes tend to justify such behaviors by believing that the result says everything or that they must win by fair or foul means in competitions (Mallia et al, 2019) With regard to this issue, Beller and Stoll (1995) reported that non-athletes more frequently applied greater reasoning in their approaches to moral dilemmas than athletes. Low moral attitudes among athletes can lead to deviant behaviors in sports settings, such as intentionally injuring opponents (Kavussanu et al, 2006), cheating the referees (Shields et al, 2005), blaming teammates (Kavussanu and Boardley, 2009), and faking an injury to get ahead in the game (Long et al, 2006). Such unethical behaviors have been historically known to be disregarded in sports contexts, where the disproportionate emphasis is placed on competitiveness compared to fairness (Sherif, 1978), and many athletes do not consider these immoral behaviors as significant, relative to their athletic achievement (Smith, 1979)
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