Elite Child Athlete Welfare Book: International Perspectives

This book on child athletes, based on a symposium at Brunel University, United Kingdom (UK), June 17 and 18 2010, includes writing by researchers and practitioners committed "to promoting the best in sport and preventing the worst, and to ensuring that young athletes realise their own potential in the safest possible environment....The work included here covers the history of the study of sexual harassment and abuse in sport, and the critical re-thinking of rights-based, and in particular, child rights-based discourses as they apply to the protection of child athletes."

The book includes results of the integrated work on child protection in sport of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) through the formation of collaborative task forces. Also included here are research and practical applications of child protection work on themes such as: the relationship between health and performance, the important role of leadership in everything from application of codes of conduct to education and policy development in child protection work, the exploration of 'the flourishing athlete', and the inclusion of psychological abuse in child athlete protection.

Contents of the book, accompanied by authors’ names, include the following:

• Preface - Sandra Kirby
• Author details
• PART 1: INTRODUCTION
  1. Setting the challenge: The ethical and research context of children’s involvement in elite sport - Celia Brackenridge
     
• PART 2: GLOBAL CONTEXT
  1. Notes on international children’s rights, implications for elite sport and the work of UNICEF - Susan Bissell
     
  2. Protecting the elite child athlete: The IOC perspective - Margo Mountjoy
     
• PART 3: BEHAVIOURAL PARAMETERS
  1. Developing physical fitness and talent in elite child athletes - Jon Oliver
     
  2. Physical and emotional abuse of elite child athletes: The case of forced physical exertion - Gretchen Kerr
     
  3. The elite child athlete and injury risk - Elizabeth C. J. Pike
     
  4. From concept to model: A new theoretical framework to understand the process of emotional abuse in elite child sport - Misia Gervis
     
  5. Elite child athletes’ narratives of emotional abuse - Ashley Stirling
     
  6. Bullying, homophobia and transphobia in sport: At what cost discrimination? - Ian Rivers
     
  7. The sexual subjection of boys in sport: towards a theoretical account - Michael Hartill
     
  8. Intimate relations and sexual abuse in Danish Sport - Jan Toftegaard Stǿckel
     
  9. Towards an understanding of the maintenance of unhealthy coach-athlete relationships - Daniel Rhind
     
• PART 4: POLICY ISSUES
  1. A review of UK based national governing bodies of sports’ websites for information relating to athlete welfare and wellbeing - Abbe Brady
     
  2. The price behind the beauty of the Olympic performance in women’s artistic gymnastics during the period 1972-1988 - Joca Zurc
     
  3. A touchy subject? The (unintended) consequences of child protection regulations on youth swimming coaches - Mel Lang
     
  4. Prevention and management of sexual harassment and abuse in Quebec sport organisations - Sylvie Parent
     
  5. The medical welfare of elite athletes: The unintended consequences of organisational change - Andrea Scott
     
• PART 5: CODA
  1. Future priorities for research on elite child athlete welfare - Celia Brackenridge and Daniel Rhind