Nearly 40% of adult Americans say they’ve experienced some type of sport-related mistreatment in their lives, a new study shows.

Mistreatment ranged from psychological and emotional to physical and sexual. But most people who reported mistreatment experienced more than one kind, the research found.

And one-third of those who never even played organized sports reported sports-related mistreatment.

“Many people talk about how they hated middle school or high school because of recess or gym class and the abuse or shame they felt playing sports in that environment,” said Chris Knoester, co-author of the study and professor of sociology at The Ohio State University.

“It just speaks to the pervasiveness of sport-related mistreatment in our society that we document in this research.”

The study, published online recently in the International Journal of the Sociology of Leisure, was led by Mariah Warner, a doctoral student in sociology at Ohio State.

The study used survey data on 3,849 adults who participated in the  National Sports and Society Survey (NSASS), sponsored by Ohio State’s Sports and Society Initiative. Those surveyed volunteered to participate through the American Population Panel, run by Ohio State’s Center for Human Resource Research. Participants, who came from all 50 states, answered the survey online between the fall of 2018 and spring of 2019.

Overall, 38% responded yes to the question “have you ever been mistreated in your sports interactions.” They weren’t asked in what context they were mistreated, but the fact that many people who reported mistreatment said they had not played organized sports suggests it could have occurred during school recess, physical education classes, informal play with peers, or even while watching sports, Knoester said.

Psychological or emotional mistreatment was most common, cited by 64% of those who were mistreated, followed by hate speech and discrimination. About one-quarter of those reporting mistreatment said it was physical in nature, while 10% said it was sexual.

“The amount of mistreatment people report is remarkable.  It really stands in contrast to the myth that sports are all good and wholesome and positive for those who play,” Knoester said.

The most common reason people reported for abuse was because of their weight, cited by 52% of mistreated respondents. That makes sense in terms of what happens in many schools, he said.

“Physical education classes and recess put your bodies on display in ways that don’t happen too commonly otherwise,” he noted.

“And obviously weight is something that people observe and classmates or people in public may be quick to mistreat or ridicule others if their weight doesn’t conform to cultural expectations.”

After weight, the most commonly noted reasons for mistreatment were gender (34%), sexual identity (20%), race or ethnicity (19%), disability status (12%) and religion (11%).

Unsurprisingly, in light of traditional jock cultures, people who were successful students and less athletic reported more mistreatment, Knoester said.

Elite sports and more competitive settings also seemed to be more prone for mistreatment to happen.

Yet, strikingly, it was men and white people who were most likely to face sports-related mistreatment, results showed.

Other research shows that Black people tend to recognize sports as relatively more positive environments for social interactions and feedback, which may be why they report less mistreatment, Knoester said.

And for men, the culture of masculinity in sports may make ridicule, fighting, hazing and other forms of mistreatment more common than they are for women, he added.

Knoester said that while the study suggests sports-related mistreatment is common, the results may still underestimate how much really occurs.

“These were adults remembering events from their childhood, so there may be a problem with recall,” he said. “And Americans are generally positive about sports, so they may not be inclined to report bad things that happened to them in that context.”

Knoester said he hopes the study helps bring attention to an aspect of sports that people don’t normally want to talk about.

“Sports-related interactions aren’t always positive.  I think it is important to better understand how frequently negative interactions occur and what we can do as a society to improve the culture of sports, otherwise there is not a means in place for betterment,” he said.