The current article reports on the second large-scale prevalence study on transgressive behavior in sport in the Netherlands, and is a follow up of an earlier, comparable prevalence study in 2015. Using a dedicated and customized online questionnaire, approximately 4000 adults who met the inclusion criteria (18 to 50 years old and have played sports in an organized context during childhood in the Netherlands) were surveyed with respect to their experiences of childhood psychological, physical, and sexual transgressive behavior while playing sports. The survey showed that 71.7% experienced some form of transgressive behavior as a child, in which 48.6% of these events also made an impact (in other words, was significant at the time it took place). The degree of impact the event made is also related to the severity of the event. Severe emotional transgression events occurred in 22% of the youth athletes, severe physical assault events in 12.7%, and severe sexual assault events occurred in 6.9% of the youth athletes. Disabled athletes, and those competing at national and international levels, report more experiences of transgressive behavior in sport. The results are consistent with former research and indicate the need for structural attention to create a safe sports climate.

Organised sport is one potential antidote to the global youth inactivity crisis. Therefore, understanding why young people drop out constitutes a key research endeavour. In part I of this series, we developed and validated a new Youth Sport Dropout Questionnaire (YSDQ). In part II, we used the YSDQ-LV (49-item long version) to examine dropout in 960 university students from seven European countries. A four-stage analysis investigated the relative and combined importance of dropout reasons. Three items—the rocks—were statistically more important: “I prioritised schoolwork and had no time left to take part in sport”; and “I found other things that I enjoyed doing more than sport”; and “I found it stressful when I did not perform/play as well as I expected”. On average, however, these rocks were rated as “moderately important”, along with 19 reasons (the pebbles) rated as “slightly important to moderately important”, and the remaining 27 reasons (the sand) rated as “slightly important to not at all important”. These findings suggest that sport dropout is not caused by a single reason but is underpinned by a dynamic tricky mix of reasons—a series of rocks, pebbles, and sand unique to each young person.

It appears to be a challenge to keep young adolescents involved in sports, while motivation has been confirmed as a key determinant for sport participation. Consequently, the aim of this study was to get a better insight into the motivational aspects and barriers of young adolescents while paying attention to the various contexts of youth sports in the Netherlands (i.e., club, commercial and urban sports). In total, 741 young adolescents (ages 12–15) filled in a questionnaire about the motivation and barriers to participate in sports and starting a new sport. The most important motivational factor in all sports contexts appears to be ‘fun/pleasure’. Additionally, they like the atmosphere of sports, and are motivated by learning new skills and becoming better at sports. Furthermore, young adolescents value a positive atmosphere, a skilled trainer and being able to participate at their own level (with others) when starting a new sport. Identified barriers are ‘liking other activities’, ‘a lack of time’, and that ‘sport is not fun anymore’. Nevertheless, the young adolescents surveyed, even those not active in sports, generally do not experience a high degree of barriers to participate in sports. The findings provide directions for developing future interventions that improve sport participation and prevent dropout.

Health-enhancing physical activity (HEPA) promotion programs are implemented in sports clubs. The purpose of this study was to examine the characteristics of the insufficiently active participants that benefit from these programs. Data of three sporting programs, developed for insufficiently active adults, were used for this study. These sporting programs were implemented in different sports clubs in the Netherlands. Participants completed an online questionnaire at baseline and after six months (n = 458). Of this sample, 35.1% (n = 161) was insufficiently active (i.e. not meeting HEPA levels) at baseline. Accordingly, two groups were compared: participants who were insufficiently active at baseline, but increased their physical activity to HEPA levels after six months (activated group, n = 86) versus participants who were insufficiently active both at baseline and after six months (non-activated group, n = 75). Potential associated characteristics (demographic, social, sport history, physical activity) were included as independent variables in bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. The percentage of active participants increased significantly from baseline to six months (from 64.9 to 76.9%, p < 0.05). The bivariate logistic regression analyses showed that participants in the activated group were more likely to receive support from family members with regard to their sport participation (62.8% vs. 42.7%, p = 0.02) and spent more time in moderate-intensity physical activity (128 ± 191 min/week vs. 70 ± 106 min/week, p = 0.02) at baseline compared with participants in the non-activated group. These results were confirmed in the multivariate logistic regression analyses: when receiving support from most family members, there is a 216% increase in the odds of being in the activated group (OR = 2.155; 95% CI: 1.118–4.154, p = 0.02) and for each additional 1 min/week spent in moderate-intensity physical activity, the odds increases with 0.3% (OR = 1.003; 95% CI: 1.001–1.006, p = 0.02). The results suggest that HEPA sporting programs can be used to increase HEPA levels of insufficiently active people, but it seems a challenge to reach the least active ones. It is important that promotional strategies and channels are tailored to the target group. Furthermore, strategies that promote family support may enhance the impact of the programs.

Introduction: Positive ethics is a trending topic in sports. However, a gap exists when sexuality and gender issues are concerned. This study aimed to explore the concept of sexual integrity as an opportunity for the development of a positive ethics approach of sexuality and gender in sport contexts. Materials and methods: To obtain consensus on definition, operationalization, and competences, a Delphi study was conducted among 77 stakeholders divided into panels of youth coaches, physical education (PE) teachers, athletes, and PE students. Results: Consensus was reached on a definition and operationalization of sexual integrity in sport contexts, defining it as the conscious, respectful, and responsible handling of one’s own and other people's body, opinions, relationships, and behaviour with regard to sexuality and gender, with the aim of contributing to the pleasure, development, resilience, and safety of (young) people in sports. Core competences for sexual integrity were highlighted, not only for coaches and PE teachers, but also for youngsters to develop. Discussion: This study presents a definition, an operationalization, and a number of competences for sexual integrity. With these, an essential connection with a positive ethical climate is proposed for the benefit of coaches, PE teachers, and youngsters as actors. The operationalization and concrete list of competences will aid the development of future prevention policies regarding sexual and gender-based violence, with an important opportunity for programme designers and policy makers to optimize training programmes. Further research is required to include sport federations’ perspectives and to develop and implement programmes addressing sexual integrity for the benefit of coaches, PE teachers, and youngsters.

The purpose of this study was to explore a biopsychosocial profile for experiencing sexual harassment and abuse in sports. A qualitative approach was used; data were collected from semi-structured in-depth interviews covering seven cases of sexual harassment and abuse in sports in the Netherlands. The interview transcripts were analysed and aligned with the biopsychosocial model. The results reveal biological (i.e., aged under 18, sex, and sexual orientation), psychological (i.e., high degree of naivety, altruism and agreeableness, low self-esteem, perfectionism, emotional or disorders) and social factors (i.e., poor or negative relationship with parents, social pressure to perform, incest at home, social isolation, elite sports and too much power of a single trainer/coach) that can contribute to the risk of experiencing sexual harassment and abuse in sports. These findings provide important directions for prevention and recognition in sports practice and future research.