PM1075: Frequency of Negative Spectator Behavior at Youth Sporting Events

Background: Parent behavior (good or bad) plays an important role in child development. Adverse childhood experiences, such as exposure to substance abuse or suffering from verbal abuse, may have a negative impact on a child’s development. Due to its competitive nature, youth sports may provide an environment that invites the display of negative parenting behavior. Additionally, youth sports are a common site of exposure to the negative behaviors of adults outside of a child’s own household. Our study aimed to quantify the frequency of negative parent and spectator behavior at youth sporting events and compare incidences across different sports and age ranges.

Methods: Investigators attended 40 youth sporting events in Central Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi from September 2021 to February 2022. Sports observed included baseball, basketball, soccer, and football. Participants were between the ages of 6 to 10 years old and were of both sexes. Investigators observed up to 45 minutes of gameplay per event and recorded spectator behaviors using a standardized data sheet. Recorded spectator behaviors included alcohol use, smoking (including cigarettes, cigars, joints, vaping devices), swearing, and negative language (including but not limited to threats, violent language, booing, and yelling at event personnel). Investigators recorded incidence of each negative spectator behavior as well as the total number of spectators in attendance.

Results: The mean negative behavior incidences (by type and by sports) are summarized in Figure 1. The overall incidence in each of the categories was low and the variance was high. Thus, the 95% confidence intervals of the means (95%CIM) were overlapping between the sports and we were not able to demonstrate statistically significant differences between the four sports with our current sample size. The 95%CIM of baseball and football exceeded one negative behavior per event. Figure 2 shows a positive visible trend in the mean incidence of negative behaviors as player age increased (r=0.19, p=0.23).

Conclusion: In conclusion, we were able to determine a significant likelihood of negative behavior at both youth baseball and football games. There was no significant difference in the overall occurrence of negative spectator behavior between youth baseball, soccer, basketball, or football. However, this lack of significance may be due to the younger-player-age group and the mostly morning play times assigned to this age group. To account for these factors, future studies are needed to increase sample size and assess the negative behavior of spectators of older-player age groups.