“We Just couldn’t Talk About that”: Unmasking Male Student-Athletes’ Experiences of Emotional Abuse

Abstract

Numerous empirical efforts have sought to understand the emotional abuse experiences of female athletes, but less is known about how emotional abuse is experienced by males in sport. To address this gap, the present study was designed to explore how four male former NCAA student-athletes ( Mage = 32 years) experienced emotionally abusive coaching behaviors and how those behaviors were influenced by masculine socialization pressures. A multiple case study design and inductive-deductive thematic approach were utilized to collect and analyze retrospective data. Results highlight socialization pressures related to orthodox masculinity influenced participant experiences and recollections of emotional abuse.