The purpose of this study was to examine the explanatory power of a predictive model of bully/perpetrator behaviour in Romanian athletes, consisting of negative pre-competitive emotions (anxiety, sadness, and anger), perception of male gender normativity, and relationships with coaches and teammates. Additionally, we aimed to explore the mediation effect of bully–victim behaviour on the relationship between athletes’ connections with their coaches and bully/perpetrator behaviour. The current research involved a nonexperimental, cross-sectional design exploring the presence of bully/perpetrator behaviour in Romanian male and female athletes. The quantitative methodology was used to collect and analyse the data obtained. Researchers translated, adapted and pretested the questionnaire set to the Romanian cultural background (SEQ, MAMS, CART-Q, In-group Ties Scale, BSQ) before distributing it to 448 participants. 58.7% were male participants, and 41.3% were female participants. The mean age was 21.15 (SDage = 2.37, range = 18–32). The research was conducted in the first half of 2023. SPSS (V. 20) and Hayes’s PROCESS tool were used to investigate the data. The findings demonstrated that in the case of Romanian male athletes, perception of male gender normativity, anger, and weaker connections with coaches are the most important psychological factors in predicting bully/perpetrator behaviour. In contrast, in the case of Romanian female athletes, only weaker connections with coaches and perception of male gender normativity play an essential role in explaining bully/perpetrator behaviour. Additionally, the study demonstrated that bully–victim behaviour mediates the relationship between athletes’ weaker connections with their coaches and bully/perpetrator behaviour. Athletes’ weaker connections with their coaches lead to experiencing a high level of bully/perpetrator behaviour by stressing bully–victim behaviour, which also contributes to achieving a high level of bully/perpetrator behaviour. Full article

Sport psychology embraced the study of athletic identity in the 1990s. The Athletic Identity Measurement Scale (AIMS) is at the forefront of athletic identity measurement. This quantitative review examined two hypotheses: individual who are most engaged in sports identify most as athletes and thus score higher on the AIMS, and athletic identity relates to positive (e.g., intrinsic motivation) and negative (negative emotions) factors. In addition to our two hypotheses, we explored whether the AIMS subscales influenced our two hypotheses. After completing a systematic search of SPORTDiscus, APA PsycINFO, ERIC, and Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection APA within the EBSCOhost platform along with some hand searching, 101 articles published between 1993 and our end date of August 2021 met the inclusion criteria. The included studies investigated 20,498 athletes competing in a variety of sports from the following continents: Australia, Asia, Europe, and North America. We based all analyses on random- and mixed-effects statistics. Higher-achieving athletes, as expected, self-reported a higher degree of athletic identity. The differences between athlete groups were significant (p < 0.001) and meaningful (g values ranged from 1.55 to 1.93). The AIMS total score correlations with positive and negative factors (correlates) were small in magnitude (r = 0.22 and 0.17). However, the relationships differed across correlate subcategories (e.g., intrinsic motivation/commitment, r = 0.51, and body issues, r = 0.14). Minimal AIMS subscale reporting occurred across the 101 studies; thus, we could not assess their importance with certainty. In conclusion, a higher degree of athletic identity related to valued sport correlates such as intrinsic motivation/commitment and the mastery goal orientation. These correlations were small in relation to negative or less desirable factors in sport such as body disorder issues and negative emotions. We recommend future research of greater complexity and the reporting of athletes’ competitive backgrounds to understand athletic identity. In addition, researchers should report AIMS subscale data. Full article

Background: Therapeutic exercise seems to minimize musculoskeletal risk factors related to swimmer’s shoulder. However, there is an absence of a qualitative evaluation of these programs and a great variability regarding the characteristics of exercises. The objective of this review was to identify, evaluate, and compare exercise programs used to minimize musculoskeletal risk factors related to swimmer’s shoulder. Methods: PubMed, CochraneLibrary, ScienceDirect, and Medscape were searched during January 2022. The research was limited to meta-analyses, systematic reviews, and RCTs written in English, Spanish, and Portuguese without publication time. The researched papers had swimmers as the population, compared an exercise program with another program or without intervention, and had as outcomes musculoskeletal risk factor variables. Results: Eleven articles were considered for analysis. There were three positive effects of strength programs on shoulder rotators’ strength and endurance, two positive effects of strength and stretching programs on shoulder posture, and one positive effect of a stretching program on shoulder ROM and a plyometric program on proprioception. Conclusions: There is high heterogeneity and little methodological quality evidence about the theme. However, strength programs with five or fewer OKC exercises performed out of the water seems to lead to better results in the swimmer’s shoulder prevention. Full article