Ethical Club Climate and Coaching Style: Unveiling Their Role in Coach-Perpetrated Psychological Abuse of Gymnasts

Athlete well-being and safety is of central importance to the field of sport management. Despite the growing attention of researchers, policy makers, and practitioners on interpersonal violence in sport, the issue remains prevalent. The most occurring form of interpersonal violence—coach-perpetrated psychological abuse of athletes—remains understudied. This gap was addressed in this study by exploring the dynamic interplay between individual coaching behaviors and organizational club characteristics in subelite-level gymnastics in Flanders (Belgium). The findings indicate a relationship between coaching style, club climate, and psychological abuse perpetrated by coaches. Gymnasts that perceived their coaches as more controlling, and/or the club climate as unethical also experienced more psychological abuse by their coaches. Furthermore, the club climate was found to moderate the relation between controlling coaching and psychological abuse, indicating the importance of taking an organizational and management lens to the issue of interpersonal violence in sport.