Relationship between Athletes’ Values and Moral Disengagement in Sport, and Differences Across Gender, Level and Years of Involvement

Abstract

Research  background  and  hypothesis.  The  research  focuses  on  university  athletes’  values  and  moral
disengagement  in  sport.  Hypothetically  moral  and  competence  values  would  negatively  correlate  with  moral
disengagement in sport. Also, values in sport would differ across gender and sports mastery.
Research aim was to examine the relationship between athletes’ values and moral disengagement in sport, and
to determine the manifestation of athletes’ values and moral disengagement in sport by gender, sports mastery and
sports experience.
Research methods. The sample included 318 athletes recruited from Lithuanian universities. The participants
completed the Youth Sport Value Questionnaire-2 (YSVQ-2; Lee et al., 2008) and the Moral Disengagement in Sport
Scale-Short (MDSS-S; Boardley, Kavussanu, 2008).
Research  results.  The  positive  correlation  between  values  in  sport  and  negative  correlation  between  moral
values and moral disengagement in sport were established. Moral values were more important to females compared
to males (p < 0.01). Competence values were more important to international level athletes compared to the national
level athletes (p < 0.01). ANOVA indicated the differences of years of involvement in sport in dependence on moral
values (p < 0.05) and competence values (p < 0.01).
Discussion  and  conclusions.  Research  established  negative  correlation  between  moral  values  and  moral
disengagement, but there were no correlations with status values. The study confirmed the hypothesis that female
athletes’ scores on moral values would be higher comparing to those of male, but there were no differences comparing
moral disengagement in sport. Athletes of higher levels of competition (international level athletes) scored higher on
competence values. Research supported the hypothesis that athletes’ moral disengagement in sport would not differ
across sport experience.

Keywords: sport, athletes’ moral behavior, values in sport, moral disengagement in sport