Identifying Factors Affecting Aggression (Interpersonal Violence) in Iran's Sports Industry: A Qualitative Grounded Theory Research

Aggression and violence in the sports field is manifested verbally and physically and is carried out by people present and participating in sports events against other players, spectators, coaches, sports officials, people and property. The aim of the current study was to identify factors affecting aggression (interpersonal violence) in the Iranian sports industry in 2022.

The current qualitative research was conducted using the grounded theory method. The research community included all university lecturers in the field of sports management, general managers of sports and youth of the country, and championship and professional athletes of the country in 2022. The number of samples using the principle of theoretical saturation was 13 people, which were selected using the snowball method. Data collection was done by semi-structured interview. To measure the validity of the findings, 4 criteria were used, including credibility, generalizability, reliability, and verification to measure the reliability of the interviews, the test-retest method and the intra-subject agreement method were used. Data analysis was done by coding method and using Max QDA .12.

 Causal conditions include (individual and personality factors, individual and organizational unethical behaviors), context (Social problems and dissatisfactions, policies and structural factors), phenomena (behavioral instability and interpersonal violence), intervening conditions, (internal and external environmental factors), strategies (cultivation and education, social skills, effective and efficient management, monitoring and enforcement of laws) and consequences (individual consequences such as, psychological and physical injuries and  organizational consequences such as, insecurity and social disorder).

The results of the research revealed the presence of 6 selective codes of the components of causal conditions, context, phenomena, intervening conditions, strategies and consequences, and 13 core codes and 47 open codes. Therefore, sports practitioners and planners are suggested to use the results of this research to reduce violence and aggression in sports gatherings.