Reflexões acerca da percepção da agressividade na perspectiva de atletas, familiares e treinadores: uma análise temática

Abstract

Studies regarding aggression and aggressive behaviors have been developed over the years by several researchers in the field of Psychology. According to the theory of social modeling, aggressive models can influence other subjects to learn and replicate aggressive behaviors. Therefore, it is acceptable to explore and investigate this phenomenon in different environments and applications, such as in sports, for example. The main objective of this research is to analyze the perception of aggression from the perspective of young athletes, their families and their coaches. The hypothesis adopted says that, in the interviews, participants would declare that teammates, family members and coaches would be influential in the aggressiveness of young athletes, also it was assumed that the coach would be identified by the participants as the main influencing agent. To obtain the data, semi-structured interviews were used with fourteen participants: six young athletes, six family members and two coaches. We chose to implement thematic analysis as a method to analyze the data collected in the interviews. Four main themes were formulated from the thematic analysis: Events in the stands, Perspective of adults, Factors linked to aggressiveness and Conceptions about aggressiveness. Given the analysis of the themes generated from the interviews, it was possible to conclude that the interviewees had prior notions regarding the difference between hostile and instrumental aggression, with the majority of interviewees expressing an aversion to hostility. In no interview did the participants point to teammates as influential people for aggressiveness and family members were the individuals highlighted in the interviews as the agents that most influence the hostile behaviors of young athletes. It is hoped that this production will cooperate in the development of future research on the topic of aggression and contribute to the development of a pedagogical practice that does not reinforce aggressiveness in sports and that considers relevant the modeling role of family members.