Is Fair Play Losing Value in Grassroots Sport?

Abstract

[eng] The objective of this study is to analyse the relationship between the attitude towards fairplay, gamesmanship and cheating in young athletes from the Balearic Islands. The sample includes 35 football, basketball and handball teams with a total of 1172 young athletes (949 boys and 223 girls) with an average age of 12.50 years and an age range between 10-16 years in the novice, juvenile and cadet categories during the 2016-2017 season, where the adapted Spanish version of the Sports Deception Disposition Questionnaire (CDED) and the Fair Play Attitude Scale (EAF) was put in force. The results show that our young athletes value sports positively as fun. Gamesmanship, as it is not delimited and regulated, is accepted progressively, especially in football. Cheating, on the other hand, is not commonly accepted. Gamesmanship, Cheating and Hard play correlate positively with the factor of victory and negatively with fun. With regard to gender, men obtain higher results in the so-called antisocial behaviors of sports, while women obtain higher results in pro-social sport behaviors