IMPACT OF SPORTS BULLYING ON MENTAL HEALTH OF UNIVERSITY ATHLETES IN SOUTH WESTERN NIGERIA

Abstract

This study determined whether experiences of bullying significantly influence
athletes’ mental health before, during and after competitions. Employing a descriptive
survey design, the research targeted athletes from six Federal Universities (FUs),
sampling four institutions through simple random sampling. A total of 320 athletes
across various sports including ball, racket, stick, athletics, and gymnastics were
selected using multi-stage sampling procedure. Convenient sampling technique was
adopted for the study. A Self-structured and validated questionnaire entitled “Sports
Bullying and Athletes’ Mental Health-Survey” with reliability coefficient of 0.78 was
used for data collection. Descriptive statistics, bar charts, means, and standard
deviations and Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient (PMCC) statistic
was used to test the hypothesis at 0.05 alpha level. Findings indicated a high
prevalence of sports bullying, with 309 (96.6%) athletes reporting experiences of
bullying; 178 (57.6%) were female. The study identified cyberbullying (mean = 29.74
± 4.67), physical bullying (28.31 ± 4.02), verbal bullying (25.58 ± 3.45), and
relational bullying (16.66 ± 1.08) as prevalent forms. Key risk factors included intimidation (31.3%), limited friendships (23.0%), ethnicity (20.4%), and physical
condition (13.6%). The mental health consequences associated with bullying
comprised anger (17.8%), guilt (14.2%), compulsive behaviour (13.3%), depression
(12.3%), excessive worry (11.9%), panic disorder (10.7%), and anxiety (9.7%). The
study concluded that sports bullying is highly prevalent among university athletes in
Southwestern Nigeria and is significantly associated with adverse mental health
outcomes. The study recommends implementing periodic awareness campaigns,
enforcing anti-bullying laws, and establishing clear codes of conduct to mitigate
bullying and promote athletes’ mental well-being.